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THE    EVOLUTION  OF  THE    ENGLISH 

BIBLE 

A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 


First  Edition,        ...  February  1901. 

Second  Edition,      -         -         -  March  1902. 


First  Edition,        .        .        .  February  1901. 

Second  Edition,      -         -         -  March  1902. 


JOHN  VVYCLIFFE. 
(Prom  an  Engraving  by  C.  White.) 


[Frontispiece. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE 
ENGLISH  BIBLE 


A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  SUCCESSIVE 
VERSIONS  FROM  1382  TO  1885 


By     H.     W.     ho  are 

LATE  OF 
BALLIOL  COLLEGE,   OXFORD 


SECOND  EDITION 

REVISED  AND  CORRECTED  THROUGHOUT 

AND  INCLUDING  A  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


WITH   PORTRAITS  AND  SPECIMEN-PAGES  FROM   OLD   BIBLES 


LONDON 

JOHN   MURRAY,  Albemarle  Street 
1902 


GENERAL 


TO 

THE   MEMORY   OF 
MY   FATHER  AND   MOTHER 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND   EDITION 

I  WISH  to  thank  the  readers  of  my  "  historical  sketch," 
both  English  and  American,  for  a  reception  which  has 
been  by  far  more  cordial  than  an  unknown  author, 
writing  on  a  somewhat  well-worn  theme,  could  reason- 
ably have  anticipated. 

My  acknowledgments  are  also  due  to  all  who, 
whether  by  reviews  or  otherwise,  have  enabled  me  to 
correct  errors  of  fact,  or  type,  or  grammar. 

A  critic  here  and  there  has  laid  it  to  my  charge 
that  I  have  added  nothing  to  the  sum  of  human  know- 
ledge. My  ambition  did  not  soar  so  high.  What  I 
tried  to  do  was  to  give  a  new  presentment  to  an  old 
subject,  to  rearrange  familiar  material  into  something 
of  a  fresh  pattern,  to  enlist  the  interest  of  a  yet  wider 
public  in  a  tale  which  could  well  afford  to  be  told  once 
again, — ^^proprie,"  as  Horace  pithily  puts  it,  "  communia 
dicer e!' 

My  treatment  of  the  subject — may  I  repeat — is  in  the 
main  uncontroversial,  popular,  and  historical.  It  is  con- 
cerned rather  with  the  external  than  with  the  internal 
aspect  of  the  successive  versions.  Its  aim  is  to  give 
to  each  version  its   appropriate   historical  setting,  and 

7 


viii  PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

by  so  doing,  to  develop,  in  an  unbroken  narrative,  the 
story  of  our  national  Bible  in  close  association  with  the 
story  of  our  national  life. 

The  internal  history  has  not  been  overlooked,  but 
it  occupies  only  a  subordinate  place.  To  deal  with  it 
as  it  ought  to  be  dealt  with,  to  examine  the  process  of 
translation  critically  at  each  stage  of  its  progress,  to 
exhibit,  by  a  detailed  collation,  the  literary  interdepend- 
ence and  independence  of  the  versions,  all  this  is  a 
task  worthy  indeed  of  long  and  patient  labour,  but  one 
quite  beyond  my  own  powers.  I  have  not  the  leisure 
which  it  demands,  nor  have  I  the  requisite  ability  and 
training. 

One  point  more.  I  am  advised  that  it  is  better  for 
an  author  to  add  a  bibliography  of  his  subject  to  a 
volume  like  the  present,  than  to  take  for  granted 
that  it  can  be  dispensed  with.  In  deference  therefore 
to  those  who  are  in  a  position  to  know,  I  have  now 
thrown  into  an  appendix  a  list  of  the  best-known  works 
in  this  country  on  the  history  of  the  English  Bible.  To 
this  I  have  added  the  names  of  various  authorities, 
historical  and  other,  to  whom,  in  one  way  or  another, 
I  am  indebted.  The  literature  of  the  subject,  I  need 
hardly  say,  is  very  far  too  extensive  to  admit  of  any- 
thing more  than  a  restricted  selection. 

H.  W.  H. 
London,  February,  1902. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 

The  sketch  which  has  been  attempted  in  the  following 
pages,  a  sketch  which  is  drawn  on  historical  rather  than 
on  critical  lines,  was  originally  suggested  by  two  articles 
which  were  contributed  to  the  Nineteenth  Century  Review 
in  1898-9,  and  I  am  glad  to  avail  myself  of  this  oppor- 
tunity of  thanking  Mr  Knowles  for  allowing  me  to 
make  use  of  them. 

No  handbook  seems  hitherto  to  have  been  published 
which  sought  to  combine,  within  modest  limits,  some 
general  account  of  the  successive  versions  of  our 
national  Bible  with  their  historical  setting. 

Accordingly,  in  designing  such  a  handbook,  an 
endeavour  has  been  made  so  to  bring  the  history  of 
the  versions  into  relation  with  the  main  current  of 
events  as  to  associate  the  story  of  the  national  Bible 
with  the  story  of  the  national  life. 

No  formal  list  of  authorities  is  appended.      It  was 

felt  that  such  a  list  might  appear  a  little  out  of  keeping 

with  the  unpretentious  and  popular  character  of  this 

sketch.     But   at   the  same  time  I  desire  gratefully  to 

9 


X  PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 

acknowledge  my  debt  to  Bishop  Westcott  and  the  late 
Dr  Eadie,  among  other  well-known  writers  on  the  subject, 
as  well  as  to  the  custodians  of  our  rich  collections  of  old 
Bibles.  I  have  tried  to  secure  accuracy  in  matters  of 
fact,  but  where,  as  in  official  life,  literary  work  can  only 
be  done  in  brief  and  broken  intervals  of  leisure,  mistakes 
will  be  likely  to  creep  in,  and  it  would  be  a  kindness 
to  me  if  any  such  might  in  due  course  be  pointed  out 
for  future  correction.  H.  W.  H. 

London,  1901. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    TABLE 


FOR  THE  PERIOD  BETWEEN  THE 


SIXTH  AND  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURIES 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


A.D. 


563.  St  Columba  founds  the  Monastery  of  lona. 
590-604,  Gregory  the  Great,  last  of  the  Latin  Fathers — Founder 
of  the  Medieval  Papacy, 
597.  St  Augustine's  mission  in  Kent. 
626-55.  The  supremacy  of  Penda,  and  of  Paganism,  in  Mercia. 
627.  Paulinus  in  Northumbria. 
631,  Felix  in  East  Anglia. 
635,  Aidan  in  Northumbria. 
664.  Conference  at  Whitby. 
669-90.  Archbishop  Theodore. 

673.  The  first  "  Pan-Anglican  "  Synod,  at  Hertford. 
675.  Caedmon. 
673-735.  Bede  of  Jarrow.     Aldhelm  of  Malmesbury.     Cynewulf. 
726.  The  Iconoclastic  controversy  in  the  East. 
732.  Battle  of  Tours,  and  defeat  of  the  Saracens. 
750.  Alliance  of  the  Franks  with  the  Papacy. 
753-4.  The  Roman  forgery  called  The  Donation  of  Constajititie. 
755.  Pepin  endows  the  "Holy  Roman  Republic"  with  the 

Exarchate  of  Ravenna  and  the  Pentapolis. 
787.  Appearance  of  the  Northmen. 
800.  Coronation  of  Charles  the  Great. 
814.  Death  of  Charles  the  Great. 
828.  Egbert,  King  of  all  the  English. 
850.  John  Scotus  Erigena. 

The  False  Decretals  (Pseudo- Isidore). 
871-.96.  King  Alfred.    The  English  Chronicle. 
955.  Dunstan. 
970-1006.  Abbot  ^Ifric.    The  Durham  Gospels. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


A.D. 


563.  St  Columba  founds  the  Monastery  of  lona. 
590-604.  Gregory  the  Great,  last  of  the  Latin  Fathers — Founder 
of  the  Medieval  Papacy. 
597.  St  Augustine's  mission  in  Kent. 
626-55.  The  supremacy  of  Penda,  and  of  Paganism,  in  Mercia. 
627.  Paulinus  in  Northumbria. 
631.  Felix  in  East  Anglia. 
635.  Aidan  in  Northumbria. 
664.  Conference  at  Whitby. 
669-90.  Archbishop  Theodore. 

673.  The  first  "  Pan-Anglican  "  Synod,  at  Hertford. 
675.  Caedmon. 
673-735.  Bede  of  Jarrow.     Aldhelm  of  Malmesbury.     Cynewulf. 
726.  The  Iconoclastic  controversy  in  the  East. 
732.  Battle  of  Tours,  and  defeat  of  the  Saracens. 
750.  Alliance  of  the  Franks  with  the  Papacy. 
753-4.  The  Roman  forgery  called  The  Donation  of  Constantine. 
755.  Pepin  endows  the  "Holy  Roman  Republic"  with  the 

Exarchate  of  Ravenna  and  the  Pentapolis. 
787.  Appearance  of  the  Northmen. 
800.  Coronation  of  Charles  the  Great. 
814.  Death  of  Charles  the  Great. 
828.  Egbert,  King  of  all  the  English. 
850.  John  Scotus  Erigena. 

The  False  Decretals  (Pseudo- Isidore). 
87 1 -,96.  King  Alfred.    The  English  Chronicle. 
955.  Dunstan. 
970-1006.  Abbot  ^Ifric.    The  Durham  Gospels. 

IS 


xiv  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

A.D. 

970-1006.  The  ;;  Exeter  "K^^j^g^^^^j^j^^  ^^^j^^^j 
The     Vercelh"J 
1030.  The  Rushvvorth  Gospels. 
1066.  Battle  of  Hastings. 
1073.  Gregory  VII.    (Hildebrand.) 
1090.  Anselm. 

1 1 16.  University  of  Bologna. 
1 150-1250.  Miracle  and  Mystery  Plays. 

1 1 50.  Gratian's  Decretum  or  Corpus  Canonici  Juris. 
1 164.  Constitutions  of  Clarendon. 
1 170.  Murder  of  Becket. 
1198-1254.  Innocent  III.   Gregory  IX.    Innocent  IV.   Culmination 
of  the  Papal  power,  and  development  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion. 
1200.  University  of  Paris. 
1209.  The  Albigensian  Massacres. 
12 1 3.  Submission  of  King  John.     England  a  Papal  fief,  and 

its  King  the  Pope's  "  man." 
1 21 5.  Magna  Charta.     Stephen  Langton. 
The  "  Ormulum  "  paraphrase  written. 

1219.  The  Dominican!  -^^  ■  •      •    -c     1     j 

^  >  Friars  arrive  m  England. 

1224.  The  Franciscan  J 

1230-90.  Roger  Bacon. 

1250.  "  Genesis  and  Exodus ^^  a  poetical  paraphrase. 

1264.  Merton  College  founded. 

1265.  The  First  Parliament  of  England. 
1227-74.  Aquinas.  1 

1275-1308.  Duns  Scotus.  j-Leading  Schoolmen. 

1290-1349.  Bradwardine.  J 

1279.  Statute  of  Mortmain. 
1294-13.  Boniface  VIII. 
1 300- 1 347.  William  of  Ockham.    Marsiglio  of  Padua. 
1305-77.  The  Popes  at  Avignon. 

1313-22.  Conflict  between  {a)  The  Empire  and  the  Papacy  ;  {b) 
The  Papacy  and  the  "  spiritual "  Franciscans. 
1320.  "  Cursor  Mundi"  a  religious  history  in  metre,  written 
in  Northumbria. 
A  Psalter  in   English   prose,    doubtfully  ascribed  to 
William  of  Shoreham. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xv 

A.D. 

1322.  Conference  at  Perugia  on  "Evangelical  Poverty." 

The  Secession  of  the  "  Fraticelli,"  otherwise  known  as 
the  "  spiritual "  Franciscans. 
1324.  Birth  of  Wycliffe  (approximate  date). 
1324.  The  treatise,  '^  Defensor  Pact's,"  by  Marsiglio  of  Padua. 
1328.  Birth  of  Chaucer. 

1338.  Wycliffe  enters  Oxford  (approximate  date). 
1 338-1453.  The  Hundred  Years'  War. 

1 340.  TAe  Psalter,  in  English  prose,  by  Hampole. 

1 34 1.  Earliest  appointment  of  a  layman  as  Chancellor. 
1346.  Battle  of  Crecy. 

1347-54-  Rienzi  at  Rome. 
1348-9.  The  Plague,  or  Black  Death,  by  which  not  less  than 
half  the  population  perished. 

1350.  Clement  VI.    "Jubilee"  pilgrimage  to  Rome  enforced, 

in  spite  of  the  plague,  to  raise  money  through  sale 
of  indulgences. 

135 1.  First   Statute  of  Provisors  against  Papal  interference 

with  ecclesiastical  patronage. 

1352.  Statute  of  Labourers,  with  a  view  to  keep  down  the 

rate  of  wages. 

1353.  First  Statute   of  Prcemunire,  against  all  appeals    to 

Papal  Courts. 
1356.  Battle  of  Poictiers. 

Sir  John  Mandeville.  [peasantry^ 

1358-9.  The     ^^ Jacquerie,"    or     insurrection    of   the    French 

1360.  John  Ball,  the  mad  socialist  preacher  of  Kent. 
Peace  of  Bretigny, 

Adrianople  becomes  the  capital  of  the  Turks  in  Europe. 

1361.  Wycliffe  is  elected  Master  of  Balliol. 

1362.  The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Ploughman  (Langland). 
1362.  Re-appearance  of  the  Black  Death. 

Law-pleadings  ordered  to  be  in  English. 
366.  Parliament  repudiates  Pope  Urban's  demand  for  arrears 
of  tribute,  and  calls  on  Wycliffe  at  Oxford  for  a  formal 
defence  of  this  resolution. 
1369.  Third  appearance  of  the  Black  Death. 
The  French  burn  Portsmouth. 
Wycliffe  accepts  the  living  of  Ludgarshall. 


xvi  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

A.D. 

1 37 1.  The   Commons    petition  against    the  appointment  of 

ecclesiastical  dignitaries  to  the  great  offices  of  State. 

1372.  Wycliffe  takes  his  Doctor's  degree. 

1372.  Spaniards  destroy  English  Fleet  offRochelle. 
1374.  Wycliffe  appointed  to  the  living  of  Lutterworth  (April). 
1374.  Bruges  Conference  (July).     Wycliffe  one  of  the  Royal 
Commissioners. 

1376.  The  Good  Parliament  meets    to  reform  abuses,  but 

breaks  up  in  July  owing  to  death  of  Black  Prince. 
Wycliffe  accused  by  the  Friars,  first  before  the  Bishops, 
and  then  before  the  Pope. 

1377.  Wycliffe's  tract  "De  Dominio,"  defending  the  decision 

of  the  Parliament  which  refused   Urban's  renewed 
demand  in  1374. 

1377.  (January)  Papal  Court  returns  from  Avignon  to  Rome. 
(February  19th)  Wycliffe  cited  to  appear  in  St  Paul's. 
(May)  5  Papal  Bulls  issued  at  Rome  against  Wycliffe, 

addressed  to  the  various  authorities  in  Church  and 

State. 
The  University  of  Oxford  reports  substantially  in  favour 

of  the  soundness  of  Wycliffe's  opinions. 
Wycliffe  sets  on  foot  his  order  of  "  poor  priests." 
1377-  (June  21)  Death  of  Edward  III. 

Wycliffe  consulted  by  Parliament  as   to  payment  of 

Peter's  pence. 

1378.  Wycliffe  cited  to   Lambeth.     Death  of  Gregory   XL 

Beginning  of  "  The  Great  Schism  "  (September). 

1379.  WycHffe  on   ^^  The  Truth  of  Scripture.^'     He    is  now 

preparing  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  and   further 
organising  his  mission-priests. 

1380.  The  obnoxious  poll-tax. 

1380.  Wycliffe's  Theses  against  the  logical  validity  of  the 

doctrine  of  Transubstantiation. 

1 38 1.  (June)  Outbreak  oi  Peasants'  War. 

1382.  The  Earthquake-Synod  at  Black  Friars.    WycHffe,  by 

petition  to  Parliament,  appeals  against  its  findings. 
English  Bible  completed. 
1384.  Death  of  Wycliffe. 
1 390.  Final  Statute  of  Provisors. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xvii 

A.D. 

1393.  Final  Statute  of  Prcemunire. 
1401.  Statute  enacting  the  burning  of  heretics. 
1408.  Archbishop  Arundel's  Constitutions  forbidding    {inter 
alia)  unauthorised  Bibles. 

1414.  Council  of  Constance. 

Lollard  Act,  extending  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1401. 

1415.  Huss  burnt  at  the  stake. 
1 43 1.  Council  of  Basel. 

1438.  Pragmatic  sanction  of  Charles  VII.  of  France. 
1450.  Jack  Cade's  rebellion,  for  redress  of  grievances. 
1453.  Capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks. 
1455-85.  Dynastic  Wars  of  the  Roses. 

1485.  Several  accused  persons  burnt  at  Coventry  as  Lollards- 
1489.  Birth  of  Thomas  Cranmer. 

1 49 1.  Savonarola  in  Florence. 

1492.  Pope  Alexander  VI. 

1 505.  Colet  Dean  of  St  Paul's. 

1 506.  Foundation  stone  laid  of  the  new  St  Peter's  at  Rome. 

1508.  Michael    Angelo    begins    to    decorate    the     Sistine 

Chapel. 

1509.  Henry  VIII,  comes  to  throne. 
1 5 10- 16.  Raphael's  cartoons. 

1 5 13.  Pope  Leo  X. 

1 5 16.  First  Edition  of  Erasmus^  New  Testament. 
More's  "  Utopia:' 

1 5 17.  Publication  of  Luther's  Theses  against  Indulgences. 

1520.  Cardinal  Ximenes'  Complutensian  Polyglot. 
Lutheran  books  begin  to  be  imported  into  England. 
Luther  bums  the  Pope's  Bull. 

1521.  Henry  VIII.'s  treatise  against  Luther. 
Lutheran  books  burnt  at  St  Paul's. 
Luther  excommunicated. 

1522.  Luther's  New  Testament  in  German. 
1522-4.  Peasants'  War  and  Nobles'  War  in  Germany. 

1525.  (February)  Emperor  defeats  France  at  Battle  of  Pavia. 
Tyndale's  New  Testament. 

1525.  Society  of  the  '"'■Christian  Brethren"  founded  (Froude's 

History,  ii.,  26). 

1526.  Geneva  declares  her  political  independence. 

b 


iii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

A.D. 

1526.  (February  n)  Recantation  of  R.  Barnes  at  St  Paul's, 

and  burning  of  Lutheran  books. 
(October)    The   Primate  and  the   Bishop  of  London 
order  Tyndale's  Testaments,   which  had  begun  to 
be  detected,  to  be  burnt. 

1527.  Spread  of  Lutheran  opinions  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 
Henry  VI IL  incHnes  to  a  divorce. 

Sack  of  Rome  by  forces  of  Charles  V. 
1527-9.  The  German-Swiss  or  Zurich  Bible. 

1528.  Latin  Bible  of  Pagninus. 

1529.  Diet  of  Spires.     Lutheran  princes  and  cities  adopt  the 

name  of  "  Protestants." 
Summoning  of  the  Anti-Papal  seven  years'  Parliament. 
Fall  of  Wolsey.     More  made  Chancellor. 

1530.  Tyndale's  Pentateuch.    Confession  of  Augsburg.    Death 

of  Wolsey. 

1530.  Royal  Proclamation  against  heretical  books,   coupled 

with  conditional  promise  of  an  English  Bible. 
Great  holocaust  of  heretical  books  at  St  Paul's. 
Protestant  League  of  Schmalkald. 

1531.  The    "Supremacy"  of   the   King  recognised  by    the 

Convocations. 

1 532.  The  subtnission  of  the  clergy. 
Macchiavelli's  ''''Prince"  published. 
Death  of  Archbishop  Warham. 

1533.  (January)    Henry    VHI.    privately    married    to  Anne 

Boleyn. 
1533.  Cranmer  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (March  30th). 
Act  in  restraint  of  appeals  to  Rome. 

1533.  Henry's  marriage  canonically  celebrated. 
Cromwell  "rules  everything."     (Chapuis.) 

1 534.  Act  embodying  the  submission  of  the  clergy. 
Act  of  Supremacy. 

Fisher  and  More  sent  to  the  Tower. 

Cranmer  and  the  Convocations  petition  for  an  English 
Bible.      Tyndale  revises  his    New    Testament   and 
Pentateuch  translations. 
1534-5.  Sebastian  Miinster's  Latin   Version  of  the   Old  Testa- 
ment. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xix 

A.D. 

1534-5-  Tyndays  final  revision  of  the  New  Testament  (known 
asthe"G.  H."). 
1535.  Olivetaris  French  Bible. 

Execution  of  Fisher  and  More. 
1535.  Coverdale's  Bible  reaches  England. 

Cromwell  made  ecclesiastical  Vicegerent. 
Visitation  of  the  Monasteries. 

1535.  Conference  of  Henry's  envoys  with  Lutherans  in  Saxony. 

1536.  Death  of  Catherine  (January). 

The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  ;  being  the  revolt  of  the 
North  of  England  against  Cromwellism. 

Execution  of  Anne  Boleyn  (May  19th). 

The  "  Ten  Articles"  marking  the  highest  point  of 
Protestant  influence  during  Henry's  reign. 

Calvin's  '' InsHtutesP 

1536.  Suppression  of  the  lesser  Monasteries. 
Geneva  adopts  Protestantism  under  Calvin. 
Tyndale  burnt  at  Vilvorde,  October  6th. 
Convocation    renews  petition    for    an  English   Bible, 

being  dissatisfied  with  Coverdale's  version. 

1537.  Matthew's  and  Coverdal^s  Bibles  licensed. 
The  Bishops'  Book. 

1538.  Cromwell's  injunctions. 

Lutheran  delegates  sent  to  England  for  a  conference 
as  to  a  possible  religious  agreement.  Tunstall  and 
Gardiner  hostile — failure  of  negotiations. 

1539.  Dissolution  of  the  greater  Monasteries. 

Act  of  the  "  Six  Articles"  indicating  the  reaction 
towards  Catholicism. 

1539.  The  Great  Bible  (Crom-weWs),  ist  Edition. 

1540.  Henry  VI IL  marries  Anne  of  Cleves,  January  6th. 
Foundation  of  the  Order  of  Jesuits. 

Execution  of  Cromwell,  July  28th. 
Burning  of  Barnes  and  others  for  heresy. 
Great  Bible,  2nd  Edition,  -with  Cranmer's  Preface. 
Henry  marries  Catherine  Howard,  July  28th. 
1543.  The  King's  Book. 

Restrictions  as  to  the  public  and  private  reading  of 
the  Bible. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

A.D. 

1543.  The  Copernican  System  published. 

1544.  The  Litany  in  English. 

1545.  Council  of  Trent,  first  session. 

1546.  Death  of  Luther. 

Statutory  restriction  of  1 543  now  made  to  include  the 

Coverdale  Bible  (July  8th). 
Wholesale  destruction  of  Bibles. 

1547.  (January)  Death  of  Henry  VI I L 
Accession  of  Edward  VL 

1548.  "  Order  of  the  Communion"  in  English. 
1548-9.  Erasmus'  '''' Paraphrase''''  set  up  in  Churches. 

1549.  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI. 

Bucer,    a    moderate    Lutheran,    made    Professor    of 

Theology  at  Cambridge. 
Peter  Martyr,  a  Calvinist,  made  Professor  of  Theology 

at  Oxford. 

1550.  John    k    Lasco,    a    Calvinist,    made    director    of  the 

foreign  Protestants  in  London. 
1 5  5 1 .  Castalids  Latin  Bible. 

John  Knox  made  a  royal  chaplain. 

1552.  Second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI. 

1553.  Death  of  Edward  VI.,  July  6th. 
(October)  Coronation  of  Mary  Tudor. 

1554.  (July)  Mary  marries  Philip  II.  of  Spain. 
1554-5.  The  troubles  at  Frankfort. 

The  Marian  persecutions  begin  in  England. 

1555.  Rehgious  compromise  of  Augsburg — "Cujus  regie  ejus 

religio  " — (September  26th). 
1555-8.  Martyrdom  of  Cranmer,  Hooper,  Ridley,  Latimer,  and 
nearly  300  others. 

1557.  The  Genevan  New  Test,  in  English^  by  Whittingham. 

1558.  Death  of  Mary  Tudor,  and  accession  of  Elizabeth  on 

November  17th, 

1559.  (January  12th)  Coronation  of  Elizabeth. 
Cecil  made  the  Queen's  chief  adviser. 

Treaty  of  Cateau  Cambresis  (April).  Secret  agreement 
between  France  and  Spain  for  extermination  of 
heretics. 

Acts  of  Supremacy  and  of  Uniformity. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xxi 

A.D. 

1559.  (December)  Parker  made  Archbishop. 

1560.  Protestantism  established  in  Scotland. 
TJie  Genevan  Bible. 

1561.  Birth  of  Francis  Bacon. 

1 562.  Religious  Wars  in  France. 

1 563.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  settled  by  Convocation. 
Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs. 

1564.  Birth  of  Shakespeare. 
1566.  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands. 

Vestment  controversy  reaches  its  height,  and  the  mal- 
contents are  branded  as  "  Precisians,"  or  Puritans. 
1568.  The  Bishops'  Bible. 

1570.  Excommunication  of  Elizabeth.    Anglo-Roman  Schism. 
1572.  Cartwright's  declaration.     Presbyterianism  announced 
to  be  a  divine  institution. 
Massacre  of  St  Bartholomew  (August  24th). 

1579.  Latin    Old    Testament    by    Tremellius.      (The    New 

Testament  was  completed  soon  afterwards.) 

1580.  Cartwright's  Book  of  Discipline. 

1 58 1.  Jesuit  mission  to  England. 

United  Provinces  declare  their  independence. 

1582.  The  Rheims  {Douai)  New  Testament. 
Hakluyt's  Voyages. 

1 586.  The  Babington  plot  against  Elizabeth. 

1587.  Execution  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots  (February  8th). 

1588.  Martin  Marprelate  libels. 
The  Armada  (July,  August). 

1590.  The  "Faerie  Queen." 

1 594.  Hooker's  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity." 

1595.  Lambeth  Articles. 

1597.  Bacon's  "Essays." 

1598.  Edict  of  Nantes  (April  30th). 

1602.  "  Othello"  played  at  Court. 

1603.  Death  of  Elizabeth  ;  accession  of  James  I.  (Mar.  24th). 

1604.  Hampton  Court  Conference. 

1605.  Gunpowder  Plot. 

Bacon's  "Advancement  of  Learning." 

1606.  "Macbeth"  and  "Lear"  played  at  Court. 
1608.  Birth  of  Milton. 


xii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

A.D. 

1609-10.  Douai  Old  Testament. 

161 1.  "  Tempest^''  played  at  Court. 

"  Authorised  Version  "  published. 
161 3.  '•^  Henry  VHL"  played  at  Court. 

Close   of  Shakespeare's  public  career,  and  transition 
from  the  Elizabethan  England  of  the  Renaissance  to 
Puritan  England. 
1616.  Death  of  Shakespeare. 


I.  A.D.  597-1382— The  Middle  Ages- 


A  TABULAR  VIEW  OF  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE 
ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

The  Bible  before  the  Invention  of  Printing. 

Metrical    Paraphrases,     Glosses, 
and     Translations     from     the 
Latin   Vulgate*  and  from  the 
so  called  "  Old  Latin." 
II.  A.D.  1382— The  Wycliffe-Hereford  Bible. 

A.D.  1388 — A  Revision  of  the  above  Bible,  by  Purvey  and  others. f 

The  Printed  Bible  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 
III.  A.D.  1525-Tyndale's  New  Testament  .         ]  p^^^  ^j^^  ^^j  ;„^, 

A.D.  l53oF>:"'^^^^'^    (P^""^     °f    ^h«)    ^^'^i      Greek  and  Hebrew. 
(     Testament       .        .        .        .' 

^*^'   H^^M^overdale's  Bible  (the  first  com-JA'o/    from    the    Greek 
A  D*  I     7  I      P^®*®  ^^^^^  ^"  English)     .        .|     and  Hebrew. 

i  Mainly  a    compilation 
A.D,  1537 — Matthew's  Bible .        .        .        .-!     from    Tyndale    and 

I     Coverdale. 
A   private  revision    of 
Matthew's,  and  com- 
paratively unimpor- 
tant. 

JThe  first  edition  of  the  Great  Bible ;  the  second  edition  of 
■   '     ■*     \  which  (with  Cranmer's  Preface),  is  dated  1540. 

A.D.  1 560 — The  Genevan  Bible. 
A.D.  1568— The  Bishops'  Bible. 
A.D.  1582— The  Rheims  New  Testament  (from  the  Vulgate). 

The  Seventeenth  Century. 
IV.  A.D.  1610 — The  Douai  Old  Testament  (from  the  Vulgate). 
A.D.  161 1 — The  Authorised  Version. 

The  Nineteenth  Century. 
V.  A.D.  188 1 — The  Revised  New  Testament. 
A.D.  1885 — The  Revised  Old  Testament. 
A.D,  1895 — The  Apocrypha. 

*  See  Appendix  A. 

t  It  is  to  be  noted  that  these  Bibles  were  translations  of  a  translation— namely,  of  the 
Vulgate  ;  and  also,  that,  by  their  adoption  of  a  type  of  language  familiar  to  the  common 
people,  they  helped  to  fix  the  diction  of  all  subsequent  versions  long  after  their  own  form 
of  English  had  become  antiquated  and  out  of  date, 

23 


A,D,  1539 — Taverner's  Bible 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 
CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTORY 

PAGE 

Point  of  View  is  that  of  the  National  History. — The 
English  Bible  our  Greatest  Classic. — Its  Influence 
upon  the  National  Life. — Division  of  the  Subject        .  3-5 

CHAPTER  n 

MEDIEVAL   ENGLAND  AND   THE   BIBLE 

General  Subject  of  the  Chapter. — English  Bible  a  Late 
Growth. — The  Undivided,  and  also  the  Eastern, 
Church,  favoured  Native  Versions.  —  The  Latin 
Church  averse  to  them. — Reasons  for  this  :  {a)  Her 
strong  sense  of  Catholicity  :  one  Church,  one  Re- 
ligious Language  ;  The  Church's  Retention  of  Latin 
saved  the  Classics  for  Posterity ;  {b)  Problem  of 
Western  Church  not  Literary  but  Practical ;  {c) 
Nature  of  the  Spiritual  Needs  of  Medievalism. — 
Summary  of  Reasons. — Transition  from  Latin  to 
Teutonic  Aspect  of  the  Question. — Saxon  England 
never  Romanised. — English  Bible  born  of  the  De- 
velopment of  Teutonic  Character  and  Language. 
Wyclifife  represents  this  Development. — Conversion 
of  England   was  a  Gradual   Process  of  Grafting. — 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

Chap,  II — Continued.  page 

Transformation  of  Heathen  Bard  into  Christian 
Poet.  —  Casdmon.  —  Cynewulf.  —  Affinity  of  Saxon 
Temperament  for  Monastic  Christianity. — Popular 
Poetry  in  the  South  ;  Abbot  Aldhelm. — The  Latin 
prevails  over  the  Celtic  Rule  ;  Conference  of  Whitby. 
— Pictorial  teaching  of  Religion  ;  Benedict  Biscop. — 
Lord's  Prayer  and  Creed  vernacularised  for  use  of 
Native  Clergy. — Bede's  Version  of  Fourth  Gospel. — 
Ninth  Century  Psalter. — King  Alfred's  Decalogue. — 
Early  Versions  of  the  Gospels :  {a)  The  Lindisfame 
(or  St  Cuthbert)  Gospels  ;  {b)  The  Rushworth 
Gospels  ;  {c)  Anglo-Saxon  Versions  of  the  South. — 
Abbot  ^Ifric  Translations  from  the  Old  Testament. 
— The  Real  Value  of  these  early  Translations. — They 
lead  up  to  Wycliffe  ;  Significance  of  his  Bible. — 
Anglo-Norman  Period  ;  The  "Ormulum,"  etc. — First 
English  Prose  Versions  of  Scripture  are  the  Psalters  ; 
(a)  Attributed  to  Shoreham,  1320,  {b)  of  The  Hermit 
of  Hampole,  1340. — Recapitulation       .  .  .         9-43 


CHx^PTER  III 

THE   BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

Position  of  the  Schoolmen  in  the  History  of  Intellectual 
Progress.  —  Their  Mode  of  handling  the  Bible.— 
Contrast  between  the  Scholastic  and  Reformation 
Spirit.— Rise  of  the  Medieval  Schools.— And  of  the 
Schoolmen.  —  Nature  of  their  teaching.  —  Theology 
and  Aristotle.— The  Twin  Revelations.— Scholasti- 
cism and  intellectual  Casuistry.— Its  Material,  Dogma: 
its  Form,  the  Syllogism.— Theology  philosophised.— 
A  Blend  which  is  neither  Philosophy  nor  Religion. — 
Relative  insignificance  of  things  mundane  at  this 
Period.— Result  of  the  Labours  of  the  Schoolmen.— 
The  Quarrel  of  Faith  and  Reason.— Permanent  Value 
of  Scholasticism  ......       47-60 


CONTENTS  xxvii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  IV 

WYCLIFFE    AND    THE    BIBLES    OF    THE 
FOURTEENTH   CENTURY 

Survivals  of  Wycliffe  Renderings  (from  the  Vulgate). — 
Object  of  the  Chapter. — Double  Character  of  Wycliffe. 
He  represents  a  new  Departure :  (a)  In  Literature  ; 
{b)  In  Religion  ;  Basis  of  his  ReHgious  Influence. — 
The  undermining  of  Scholasticism  and  Medievalism. 
The  Intellectual  and  Moral  Revolt. — The  Seculari- 
sation of  the  Papacy. — Its  Feud  with  the  Empire  is 
succeeded  by  its  Feud  with  France. — Rome  aban- 
doned for  Avignon. — Degradation  of  the  Papacy. — 
Its  Rapacity  and  Unpopularity. — Its  Clash  with  the 
Teutonic  Spirit  the  key  to  Wycliffe's  Life.  —  The 
Strong  and  Weak  Points  in  Wycliffe. — Three  Stages 
in  his  Career:  {a)  1336-1366;  {b)  1 366-1 378 ;  {c) 
1378-1384.— First  Stage.  —  Second  Stage.  —  Third 
Stage. — Wycliffe's  two  Bequests  to  his  Country. — The 
Literary  and  Religious  Bearings  of  his  Work  of 
Translation.  —  His  Originality.  —  Rapid  Spread  of 
Lollardy. — Wycliffe's  Moral  Courage. — Grandeur  of 
the  position  of  the  Medieval  Church.  —  The  1382 
Version  of  the  Bible. — The  1388  Revision  of  it. — 
Characteristics  of  the  two  Versions  and  Specimens 
of  the  Translation  of  1382. — Note  on  Father  Gasquet's 
Theory     .......     63-106 


CHAPTER  V 

WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Summary  of  preceding  Period.  —  Tyndale  and 
Wycliffe. — The  two  Men  are  separated  by  the  Re- 
naissance.— The  Bearing  of  this  upon  their  Relative 
Positions. — Tyndale  the  real  Father  of  the  English 
Bible. — The  Character  of  his  Work. — Its  Incomplete- 
ness.— Four  Periods  in  his  Life:   (a)  1510-1521  ;   (p) 


xxviii  CONTENTS 

Chap.  V — Continued.  paob 

1521-1523;  {c)  1523-1524;  id)  1524-1536.— Tyndale, 
Colet,  Erasmus,  and  Luther. — Erasmus'  New  Testa- 
ment, and  More's  Utopia. — Importance  of  Erasmus' 
New  Testament  and  Paraphrases. — Outbreak  of  the 
Reformation  in  Germany.  —  Corruption,  Ignorance, 
and  Indolence  of  the  Clergy  in  England. — Tyndale's 
Resolve  to  Translate  the  New  Testament. — Tyndale 
and  Bishop  Tunstall. — Tyndale  and  Humphrey  Mun- 
mouth. — His  Qualifications  as  a  Translator. — Goes  to 
Hamburg.  —  To  Cologne.  —  Cochlaeus,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Spy. — The  Quarto  and  Octavo  Editions  of 
the  New  Testament,  1525. — What  has  survived  of 
them.  —  Tyndale's  Pentateuch.  —  Tyndale's  Jonah. — 
Revision  of  1 534. — Foundation  of  the  Society  of  the 
Jesuits. — Martyrdom  of  Tyndale. — Retrospect  of  his 
Career, — Illustrations  of  his  Translation. — Explana- 
tion of  the  Hostility  which  he  encountered. — Nobility 
of  his  Character .  .....    109-158 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  COVERDALE,   MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

Breach  between  Henry  VIII.  and  the  Pope  complete 
before  Tyndale's  death. — Fall  of  Wolsey  and  Rise 
of  Cromwell. — Prospects  of  English  Bible  improved 
by  Henry's  Attitude  towards  Rome. — The  King's 
Views  on  a  Vernacular  Version.  —  Anne  Boleyn, 
Hugh  Latimer,  and  Cromwell. — Review  of  the  Events 
which  led  up  to  the  Coverdale  Bible. — Early  Life  of 
Miles  Coverdale. — His  friendly  Relations  with  Crom- 
well.— The  Bible  of  1535. — It  circulated  without  either 
Sanction  or  Prohibition. — And  forestalled  Cranmer's 
Scheme  of  a  Bishops'  Bible. — It  was  our  first  Com- 
plete English  Bible.  —  Tyndale's  Enthusiasm  con- 
trasted with  Coverdale's  Diffidence.  —  Coverdale's 
Account  of  the  Origin  of  his  Translation. — His  ^^  Five 


CONTENTS  XX 

Chap.  VI  —Continued.  pa( 

InterP't'eters." — Characteristics  of  his  Style. — Speci- 
mens of  it. — Origin  of  the  ^^ Matthew"  Bible  (1537), 
compiled  by  John  Rogers. — The  Aim  and  Object  of 
it. — Description  of  the  Book. — Its  Importance  in  the 
Line  of  Versions. — Cranmer  notifies  its  Arrival  to 
Cromwell,  and  he  to  the  King. — Its  Authorisation 
by  Henry,  difficult  to  understand. — Suggested  Ex- 
planation of  his  Action  in  the  Matter. — The  Origin 
of  the  Great  Bible  of  1539,  edited  by  Coverdale. — 
It  becomes  the  "Authorised  Version." — A  Misnomer 
to  call  it  Cranmer's. — It  is  ordered  to  be  set  up  in 
Churches. — Its  Popular  Welcome. — Disorderliness  of 
the  new  Protestantism. — Authorisation  of  this  Bible 
by  the  Bishops. — The  "  Tavcrner  Bible" — Influence 
of  the  Great  Bible.— The  "Catholic  Reaction."  .    i6i-i( 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND   DOUAI   BIBLES 

Henry  VIII.  the  central  Figure  of  the  Reformation  in 
England.  —  Nature  of  that  Movement.  —  Henry's 
Political  Protestantism.  —  Cromwell  given  a  free 
hand. — Henry  startled  by  the  "Pilgrimage  of  Grace." 
Consequent  Disgrace  and  Fall  of  Cromwell. — The 
Royal  Pendulum  swings  towards  Gardiner. — Flight  of 
the  advanced  Reformers. — Triumph  of  the  Jesuits  at 
the  Council  of  Trent  swings  the  Pendulum  back. — 
Death  of  Henry. — The  Bible  and  the  Protectorate. — 
The  Bigotry  of  Mary  Tudor. — What  Protestantism 
owes  to  Smithfield. — Origin  of  the  "  Genevan  Bible." 
— Its  great  Success. — Coverdale  and  the  Bibles  of  the 
Tudor  Period. — Influence  of  Geneva  in  the  Protestant 
World. — Calvin  and  Geneva. — The  Genius  of  Calvin. 
— The  Genevan  "New  Testament"  of  1557. — The 
complete  Bible  of  1560. — Its  Calvinistic  Character 
and  Significance. — Its  Effect  on  Archbishop  Parker. 
— Attitude  of  Elizabeth  towards  Translations. — Parker        / 


XXX  CONTENTS 

Chap.  VII — Continued.  paob 

arranges  for  a  "Bishops'  Bible." — Its  Publication  and 
Characteristics. — Character  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
"  Douai  Bible." — Cardinal  Allen  and  Douai. — The 
Rheims  -  Douai  New  Testament  —  Excitement  in 
England  at  its  Appearance  at  this  Crisis. — Descrip- 
tion of  the  Book. — Critical  Value  of  its  Fidelity  to 
the  Vulgate. — Greatness  of  the  Vulgate  .  .  201-237 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  AUTHORISED    VERSION 

Its  Unique  Position. — Character  of  James  I. — How  this 
Version  was  related  to  the  Millenary  Petition. — The 
Selection  and  Organisation  of  the  Revisers. — The 
Text  on  which  they  worked,  and  their  Authorities. — 
Their  Code  of  Instructions.  —  Publication  of  the 
Authorised  Version. — Its  Style  and  Diction. — The 
Revisers  did  not  claim  Finality. — Causes  contributory 
to  its  Success  :  {a)  Personal  Qualifications  of  Re- 
visers ;  {b)  Their  Sense  of  the  National  Dignity  of 
their  Work  ;  {c)  The  Labours  of  their  Predecessors  ; 
{d)  The  Sympathetic  Temper  of  the  Times  ;  {e)  Their 
well-planned  Organisation ;  (/)  The  Literary  Air 
which  nourished  them. — A  Retrospect  of  the  History 
of  the  English  Bible       .....   241-270 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   WORK   OF   REVISION 

After  161 1  comes  a  Natural  Pause. — Competing  Versions. 
— Bibles  with  Curious  Names. — The  Long  Parlia- 
ment and  Revision. — Cudworth  and  Bryan  Walton. 
— The  Belief  in  Verbal  Inspiration. — Rise  of  Scientific 
Method.— Attack  of  the  Deists  on  the  Bible.— Walton's 


CONTENTS 


Chap.  \X— Continued. 

Polyglot,  Mill's  New  Testament,  Collins  and  Bentley. 
— Specimens  of  Eighteenth  Century  Translation. — 
The  "Revision  by  Five  Clergymen." — Alford's  New 
Testament. — Studies  preparatory  to  Revision. — Re- 
vision, why  so  long  delayed. — Definite  Steps  towards 
a  New  Version. — The  Instructions  of  the  Convoca- 
tion of  Canterbury. — Position  of  the  Revisers  con- 
trasted with  that  of  their  Predecessors  in  1611. — 
Different  Problem  offered  by  the  "  Received  Text " 
in  Old  Testament  and  in  New.^ — Boldness  of  the 
Westcott-Hort  Text. — The  "Ancient  Authorities"  of 
the  Revisers,  and  their  Treatment  of  the  Margin.— 
Summary  of  the  Principal  Classes  of  Defects  in  the 
Authorised  Version.  —  The  Twofold  Disadvantage 
which  impeded  the  Revisers  of  161 1. — The  over- 
refinements  of  the  Revisers  of  1870. — Unnecessary 
Alterations  made  by  them. — Conspicuous  Merits  of 
their  Version. — Concluding  Remarks   . 


273-313 


APPENDICES 


A,— The  Vulgate  of  Jerome     . 
B. — Wycliffe's  Doctrine  of  Dominion 
C— Some  Bibles  with  Curious  Titles 
D.— Bibliography  .... 

Index  ..... 


317-320 

321-327 

328 

329-331 

332 


LIST  OF  PORTRAITS  AND  SPECIMEN 
PAGES 

John  Wycliffe,  from  an  Engraving  by  C. 

White        .....  Frontispiece 

William  Tyndale,  from  an  Engraving  by 

W.  HUMPHRYS       ....     To  fate  page  125 

Tyndale's  New  Testament  of  1525  .  „  145 

Miles  Coverdale,  from  an  Engraving  by 

Thos.  Trotter    .  .  .  .  „  161 

Coverdale's  Bible  of  1535     .  .  .  „  173 


Holbein  Engraving 


191 


Rheims  (Douai)  New  Testament  of  1582  .  ,,  233 


INTRODUCTORY 


Act  yap  tcrws  virorvTrwa-aL  TrpwTOV,  etd  vcrrepov  dvaypd\f/ai' 

— Arisi.  Ethics. 

For  it  is,  perhaps,  the  best  way  first  to  draw  a  sketch  in  out- 
Hne,  and  then  afterwards  to  fill  it  in. 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

It  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  subject  more  full  of 
interest  for  an  Englishman  than  the  evolution,  through 
a  long  series  of  revisions,  of  our  national  Bible. 

Regarded  as  Scripture,  as  the  message  and  revela- 
tion of  God  to  man,  it  is  to  our  religious  consciousness 
and  to  our  moral  needs  that  the  Bible,  in  whatever 
language,  must  always  make  its  primary  appeal.  But 
our  English  Bible  has  also  its  historical  side.  Regarded 
as  the  greatest  of  English  classics,  and  the  most  vener- 
able of  the  national  heirlooms,  it  is  as  Englishmen  that 
we  have  learned  to  love  it.  By  the  bond  of  a  common 
literary  heritage  it  unites  the  whole  English-speaking 
race.  It  throws  back  its  ancient  roots  into  a  past  from 
which  we  now  stand  removed  by  an  interval  of  not  less 
than  twelve  hundred  years.  It  interweaves  itself  with 
the  most  momentous  crises  of  the  nation's  fortunes.  It 
is  sealed  with  the  blood  of  martyrs.  It  is  hallowed  and 
endeared  to  many  a  heart  by  memories  of  the  old  home 
days.  It  has  quickened,  moulded,  and  sustained  what 
is  best  and  strongest  in  our  individual  and  corporate  life. 
Bone  of  our  literary  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  literary  flesh, 
it  has   exercised  upon  English  character  an   influence, 

8 


4  I  NT  ROD  UCTOR  V 

moral,  social,  and  political,  which  it  is  not  possible  to 
measure.  Unique  in  dignity,  unique  in  grandeur,  unique 
in  stately  simplicity,  it  is  the  noblest  monument  that  we 
possess  of  the  genius  of  our  native  tongue. 

It  is  of  this  national  Bible  that  we  now  propose  to 
trace  the  history.  When  did  we  get  it  ?  Whence  and 
how  ?  Who  were  its  first  sponsors  ?  What  was  it  that 
originally  suggested  such  a  work  ?  Was  it  born  of  some 
chance  literary  impulse,  or  shall  we  find  it  coming  to 
meet  us  on  the  crest  of  some  great  religious  wave  ? 

In  order  to  find  answers  to  these  and  to  other 
kindred  questions,  which  will  naturally  occur  to  any  one 
who  approaches  the  subject  as  a  comparative  stranger, 
we  shall  have  to  pursue  a  path  which  at  the  outset  is 
neither  well-defined  nor  continuous,  but  which  broadens 
out  as  we  advance. 

It  is  not  till  somewhat  late  on  in  English  history 
that  we  come  upon  a  complete  vernacular  version. 
Yet  in  one  shape  or  another  the  Bible  story  has  been 
among  us  from  our  national  infancy.  We  need  not, 
therefore,  plead  guilty  to  any  spirit  of  antiquarian 
pedantry,  nor  to  a  weakness  for  "  beginning  the  tale  of 
the  Trojan  war  from  Leda's  egg"  if  the  chapter  which 
next  follows  has  been  in  part  devoted  to  a  preliminary 
survey  of  those  fragmentary  forms  in  which  a  native 
Bible  begins  to  become  dimly  visible  almost  as  the 
curtain  rises  on  our  history. 

To  this  survey  of  the  place  occupied  by  the  Bible 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  there  has  been  added,  in  Chapter 
III.,  a  brief  sketch  of  its  relation  to  Scholasticism  in  the 
university  schools. 


DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT  5 

With  Wycliffe  and  the  versions  which  since  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century  have  been  associated  with  his 
name,  we  shall  pass  from  the  period  of  ecclesiastical 
tutelage  to  that  of  nascent  independence ;  from  the  one 
Empire,  and  the  one  Church,  to  the  many  nations  and 
many  Churches,  and  shall  make  acquaintance  with 
the  earliest  of  English  Bibles,  From  Wycliffe  we 
shall  go  on  to  William  Tyndale,  to  Miles  Coverdale, 
and  to  the  other  translators  of  the  Tudor  period 
with  whom  begins  that  long  series  of  Bibles  to 
which  the  authorised  and  revised  versions  both  equally 
belong.  The  next  stage  will  introduce  us  to  our 
golden  age  of  creative  inspiration,  when  Scholarship 
and  Letters  came  forth  to  lay  their  united  service  at  the 
feet  of  Religion,  and  to  dedicate  to  her  that  famous  book 
which  has  been  the  pride  of  England  for  now  nearly 
three  hundred  years.  Descending  to  more  prosaic  times, 
to  this  silver  age  of  industrious  research,  it  will  be 
our  concluding  task  to  review  the  causes  which  led  up 
to  the  long  and  patient  labours  of  our  last  revisers,  who, 
without  claiming  for  their  work  a  finality  which  is 
beyond  human  reach,  may  none  the  less  prove  to  have 
been  laying  a  firm  and  lasting  foundation  for  that 
national  and  popular  Bible  for  which  we  have  still  to 
look.  Such  an  ideal  Bible  would  be  based  on  the  purest 
attainable  text ;  would  be  so  printed  as  to  be  read  with 
unmixed  delight ;  and  would  have  the  seventeenth 
century  translation  of  the  text  only  so  far  revised  as  to 
satisfy  the  legitimate  demands  of  a  not  too  microscopic 
scholarship,  while  perpetuating,  with  a  wise  and  chas- 
tened discretion,  the  beauties  of  the  Authorised  Version. 


MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 


...  A  man  may  prophesy, 
With  a  near  aim,  of  the  main  chance  of  things 
As  yet  not  come  to  Ufe,  which  in  their  seeds 
And  weak  beginnings  lie  intreasured. 

—Henry  IV.,  Part  II.,  Act  iii.,  Sc.  i. 


CHAPTER   II 

MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE   BIBLE 

It  is  proposed  in  the  present  chapter  first  to  consider 
the  working  of  certain  influences  which  served  to 
retard  the  translation  of  the  Latin  Bible  of  the 
Church  into  English,  and  next  to  gain  some  idea  of 
the  extent  to  which  certain  portions  of  that  Bible  had 
been  brought  within  the  reach  of  our  forefathers, 
whether  lay  or  clerical,  before  the  last  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century. 

Christianity,  let  us  remember,  first  reached  •  these 
shores  as  early  as  the  second  century,  and  its  light 
was  only  temporarily  eclipsed  by  the  invasions  of  the 
heathen  Teutons.  Upon  its  reappearance  at  the  close 
of  the  sixth  century  there  followed  an  outburst  of 
literary  activity  in  Northumbria,  to  which,  at  that 
early  date,  no  parallel  can  be  found  in  any  other 
country  of  the  West.  It  may  seem,  therefore,  at  first 
sight  a  little  difficult  to  understand  why  the  Bible, 
as  a  whole,  should  have  remained  untranslated  until 
the  time  of  Wycliffe. 

It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  in  this  respect  England 
was  no   worse    off   than    her    neighbours.      We   may 


lo  MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

even  say,  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Goths,  we 
can  point  to  no  Teutonic  people  who  came  earher 
into  the  possession  of  a  vernacular  Bible.  Nay 
more  ;  for,  if  we  look  closely  into  it,  this  very  excep- 
tion will  be  seen  to  be  more  apparent  than  real,  inas- 
much as  Bishop  Ulfilas,  who  in  the  fourth  century 
gave  the  Goths  their  native  version,  in  a  translation 
from  the  Greek  of  both  Testaments,  was  a  bishop  not 
of  the  Western  but  of  the  Eastern  Church. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  show  that  England  formed 
no  exception  to  the  general  practice  of  Western 
Christianity,  and  another  thing  to  discover  how  that 
practice  had  come  to  be  established.  On  one  point,  at 
any  rate,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Let  its  origin  be  what 
it  may,  it  was  not  derived  from  the  primitive  Church. 
To  the  early  Fathers,  to  St  Chrysostom  or  Origen, 
to  Augustine  or  Jerome,  could  they  have  come  back 
to  life,  it  would  have  seemed  a  reproach  to  Chris- 
tianity that  a  nation  of  Teutonic  speech  should  remain 
restricted  to  a  Latin  Bible.  We  find,  accordingly, 
that  by  a  very  early  period  the  Holy  Scriptures 
had  been  translated  into  Syriac,  Armenian,  Egyptian, 
and  into  other  Oriental  tongues,  as  well  as  into  Greek 
and  Latin.  Nor  did  the  Eastern  Church  depart 
from  the  principle  by  which  the  undivided  Church 
had  been  governed.  She,  too,  afforded  ample  proof 
of  her  desire,  that,  for  every  nation  within  her  com- 
munion where  the  Christian  faith  had  made  its  way, 
these  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular  should  be  made 
accessible  to  all  alike. 

Why   is   it,  then,   we   naturally   ask,   that   between 


EASTERN  AND  WESTERN  CHURCH  CONTRASTED   1 1 

primitive  and  medieval  Christianity,  between  the 
Church  of  the  East  and  the  Church  of  the  West, 
so  marked  a  contrast  should  exist.  If  Constantinople 
made  no  endeavour  to  impose  a  Greek  Bible  upon 
the  Slavs,  why  should  Rome  have  imposed  a  Latin 
Bible  upon  the  English?  Why  should  the  Vulgate 
have  been  within  its  rights  at  Canterbury,  while  a 
Teutonic  Bible  would  have  been  a  trespasser  at 
Rome?  The  problem  is  worth  examination,  and  will 
repay  a  little  attention. 

The  early  introduction  into  this  country  of  an 
English  Bible  might  conceivably  have  been  brought 
about  in  one  or  other  of  two  ways.  On  the  one 
hand,  a  demand  might  have  asserted  itself  from 
below ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Church  might 
have  felt  that  in  so  important  a  matter  it  was  her 
duty,  as  the  one  educational  institution  of  the  times, 
to  take  a  strong  initiative  herself  But  a  little 
consideration  will  be  sufficient  to  satisfy  us,  that, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  impossible  that  there 
should  have  been  any  demand  for  a  translated 
Bible  from  below.  For  in  Anglo-Saxon  days,  and 
even  down  to  a  far  later  period,  there  were  very 
few  persons  outside  the  monasteries  and  chapters 
who  could  read  their  letters.  Manuscripts,  too,  were 
scarce  and  costly,  and  it  was  only  by  hand  that 
they  could  be  multiplied.  Under  such  circumstances 
an  English  Bible  would  have  found  no  reading  public 
ready  to  profit  by  it. 

Still,  as  native  converts  multiplied,  and  as  numbers 
of  them   passed   through  the  schools  connected   with 


12  MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

the  monasteries  into  the  ranks  of  the  clergy,  the  idea 
of  a  native  Bible  might  well,  it  would  seem,  have 
suggested  itself  to  the  scholars  and  teachers  of  the 
Church.  In  the  golden  days  of  Northumbrian  letters 
such  a  work  could  not  have  been  beyond  their  powers. 
Why  was  it,  then,  that  the  Church  held  back?  How 
are  we  to  explain  the  fact,  that,  although  for  at  least 
a  hundred  years  before  the  coming  of  the  destroying 
Danes,  English  literature  flourished  so  vigorously  in 
the  North,  and  although  it  revived  again,  in  the  form 
of  prose,  with  King  Alfred  in  the  South,  yet  no  English 
Bible  appeared  before  Wycliffe,  and  no  English  Liturgy 
before  Cranmer  ? 

It  is  evident  that  whatever  the  explanation  may  be, 
we  cannot  ascribe  the  delay  either  to  any  fear  of  heresy, 
of  which  there  was  not  then  so  much  as  a  whisper  to  be 
heard,  or  to  any  latent  feeling  of  hostility  on  the  part  of 
the  religious  houses  towards  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue 
itself.  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  scholarship  did  not 
long  remain  at  the  high  level  which  it  reached  in  Bede  ; 
and  true  also  that  the  general  trend  of  monastic  culture 
inclined  more  and  more  towards  Latin.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  home  language  was  never  at  any  time 
proscribed,  or  even  kept  at  a  distance.  So  far,  indeed, 
was  this  from  being  the  case,  so  far  was  Anglo-Saxon 
from  being  slighted  as  the  uncouth  speech  of  a  race 
but  just  emerged  from  heathenism,  that  it  was  under 
the  shelter  of  the  Church  itself  that  our  native  literature 
was  encouraged  to  put  forth  its  earliest  shoots.  We 
must  turn  elsewhere,  therefore,  for  a  solution. 

May  not  one  reason  be  that  we  hardly  realise  the  in- 


THE  VULGATE  A  SYMBOL  OF  UNITY  13 

tensity  of  devotion  with  which  the  Vulgate  was  re- 
garded? May  it  not  be  that  a  new  departure,  which 
to  us  seems  now  so  natural  and  obvious,  would  have 
struck  the  mind  of  a  medieval  monk  as  a  wanton 
innovation  on  an  order  of  things  which  in  his  eyes 
stood  consecrated  by  immemorial  prescription?  Does 
not  the  very  conception  of  a  national  Bible,  like  that 
of  a  national  Liturgy,  carry  us  out  of  the  medieval 
period  of  tutelage  and  tend  to  ^associate  itself  with 
the  kindred  ideas  of  national  individuality  and  national 
independence  ? 

And  if  such  be  the  case — if  the  possession  by  a 
people  of  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  mother  tongue 
involves  either  a  recognition,  or  at  least  a  prophecy,  of 
spiritual  emancipation  and  of  intellectual  adolescence — 
we  begin  to  see  the  matter  in  a  different  light.  For  in  the 
Middle  Ages  the  principal  of  ecclesiastical  unity  was  of 
all  principles  the  most  self-evident  and  the  most  axio- 
matic* The  belief  in  the  one  Empire  and  the  one 
Church,  in  the  World-Priest  and  in  the  World-Monarch, 
was  the  most  deeply-seated  conviction  of  the  times. 
Notwithstanding  that  discordance  between  the  theo- 
retical and  the  actual  which  is  so  striking  a  character- 
istic of  the  medieval  world,  it  stamps  and  pervades  the 
entire  period  which  lies  before  us  throughout  the 
present  chapter.  And  the  dethronement  of  the  official 
Latin  Bible  by  a  vernacular  version  would  have 
seemed  to  be  an  insidious  attack  on  the  authority 
and  catholicity  of  the  West. 

*See  Bryce's  Holy  Roman  Empire,  Fourth  Edition  (1873),  p. 
106. 


14         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

Let  us  bring  to  mind  for  a  moment  the  position 
towards  which  Rome  had  already  begun  to  aspire,  a 
position  to  the  consolidation  of  which  the  forgery  of 
the  False  Decretals  in  the  ninth  century  was  so  power- 
fully to  contribute. 

Gregory  the  Great,  from  whose  side  Augustine  came, 
was  no  doubt  perfectly  sincere  when  he  denounced,  as 
nothing  less  than  flat  blasphemy,  the  claim  of  his 
brother  patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  the  title  of 
"  Universal  Bishop."  But  his  sincerity  interferes  in 
no  way  with  the  fact  that  the  tide  of  events  was  already 
running  rapidly  that  way,  only  that  Rome,  and  not 
Constantinople,  was  marked  out  as  the  future  seat  of 
spiritual  empire.  No  sooner  had  the  Roman  bishops 
been  set  free  from  secular  control  than  they  began  to 
see  visions  and  to  dream  dreams  of  sovereignty.  The 
transfer  to  the  East  of  the  imperial  throne  was  an  event 
by  which  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  the  West  was 
made  ultimately  inevitable.  In  part  Rome  achieved 
greatness,  and  in  part  she  had  greatness  thrust  upon 
her.  Step  by  step  the  Patriarch  expanded  into  the 
Pope,  and  the  natural  primacy  of  the  chief  bishop  into 
the  divinely  constituted  authority  of  the  representative 
and  lineal  successor  of  St  Peter.  Christendom  required 
a  head,  and  the  natural  head  was  Rome.  Upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  Papacy  had  fallen  the  mantle  of  the 
dying  Empire,  and  she  bore  towards  the  converted  the 
same  relation  that  Caesarism  had  borne  towards  the 
conquered.  Her  traditions,  her  instincts,  her  aspira- 
tions, her  ambitions,  had  all  been  cast  in  a  mould 
which  was  neither  local  nor  national,  but  catholic  and 


ONE  CHURCH,  ONE  BIBLE  15 

universal.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  the  bearing  of  such 
an  institution  as  this  on  the  question  of  a  national  Bible. 
The  majestic  dignity,  the  absolute  claims,  of  the 
medieval  Church  could  not  but  be  reflected  back  upon 
the  character  of  her  sacred  books.  As  there  was  but 
one  Church,  one  Pope,  one  Faith,  so  also  must  it  have 
seemed  part  of  the  universal  order  that  there  should  be 
one  consecrated  language  in  which  that  Faith  should  rest 
enshrined,  and  in  which  that  Church  should  offer  up- to 
God  her  worship.  To  break  in  upon  the  order,  to  throw 
the  hallowed  and  stately  diction  of  the  Vulgate — that 
Vulgate  which  after  violent  and  prolonged  opposition 
had  come  to  command  a  reverence  not  far  removed  from 
actual  idolatry — into  the  rude  dialect  of  a  half  barbarous 
people  scarcely  yet  redeemed  from  Paganism,  may  well 
have  seemed  something  so  intolerable  as  to  savour 
strongly  of  actual  profanation. 

It  is  natural  that  our  first  feeling  should  be  one  of 
regret  that  a  different  course  was  not  adopted.  But 
there  is  at  least  one  ground  on  which,  as  Hallam  long 
since  pointed  out,*  we  may  feel  deeply  thankful. 
For  when  the  old  world  fell  to  pieces,  the  Church  was 
the  one  and  only  institution  which  survived  the  general 
wreck.  Unless  this  Church  had  thrown  a  halo  of 
sanctity  over  the  Latin  tongue  by  retaining  it  as  the 
language  of  her  Bible  and  of  her  worship,  as  well  as 
the  channel  of  her  diplomatic  intercourse,  her  ecclesi- 
astical administration,  and  her  religious  study,  the 
fate  of  classical  learning  must  inevitably  have  been 
sealed. 
*Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  Fifth  Edition  (1829),  vol.  iii.,  pp.  335-8. 


1 6         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

These  considerations  may  in  some  degree  serve  to 
reconcile  for  us  the  friendly  attitude  of  the  Church 
towards  the  vernacular  literature  with  her  accompanying 
sense  of  the  sacredness  and  inviolability  of  the  Latin 
scriptures  and  liturgy.  But  there  were  other  causes 
at  work  which  helped  to  delay  anything  beyond  frag- 
mentary translations,  and  in  order  to  understand  in 
what  they  consisted  we  must  turn  to  the  world  of 
practical  life. 

In  the  mission-field  of  Latin  Christianity  the  activity 
of  the  representatives  of  the  Church  was  necessarily 
conditioned  by  the  nature  of  the  material  with  which 
they  had  to  deal.  In  Anglo-Saxon  England  it  was  not 
until  the  work  of  Theodore  and  of  Adrian  had  been 
done,  that  religion,  towards  the  end  of  the  seventh 
century,  ceased  to  be  tribal  and  migratory,  and  began  to 
settle  slowly  down  into  an  organisation  which  was  fixed 
and  territorial,  and  into  an  ecclesiastical  unity  which 
was  the  foster-nurse  of  the  monarchy.  Archbishop 
Theodore  had  found  the  country  a  mere  loose  chain  of 
scattered  monasteries  and  mission-stations,  the  Italian 
mission  having  its  centre  at  Canterbury,  and  the  Celtic 
mission  at  lona.  At  his  death,  in  690  A.D.,  there  had 
been  organised  a  national  and  episcopal  Church,  estab- 
lished on  a  parochial  basis,  and  endowed  with  a  staff 
of  resident  pastors.  But  it  was  a  Church  whose 
members  were  as  yet  anything  but  ripe  for  a  vernacular 
Bible. 

The  educated  clergy  were  content  with  their 
Vulgate,  and  neither  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  nor  their 
lay  subjects  would,  as  a  rule,  have  been  able  to  make 


GOVERNMENT  THE  TASK  OF  THE  CHURCH     17 

anything  of  a  written  manuscript.  Nor  would  a  Saxon 
Bible  have  been  of  much  service  to  the  mass-priests,  or 
country-clergy,  who  stood  between  the  illiterate  popula- 
tion and  the  monks.  Even  if  their  education  had 
been  less  rudimentary  than  it  was,  they  could  have 
had  but  little  leisure  for  Bible-reading,  while  expensive 
manuscripts  would  have  been  quite  beyond  their  means. 
It  was  no  literary  task  which  lay  before  them  in 
those  rough  days,  but  one  of  a  wholly  different  nature, 
and  a  task,  moreover,  which  was  arduous  enough  to 
tax  all  the  energy  that  they  could  devote  to  it.  It  was 
the  task  of  taming  the  wild  beast  in  the  Saxon  nature; 
the  task,  in  an  age  of  violence  and  lawlessness,  of  dis- 
ciplining their  converts  through  the  power  of  example, 
of  sympathy,  and  of  self-sacrifice  ;  the  task,  in  a  word,  of 
organisation,  of  authority,  and  of  moral  government. 
What  the  Church  had  to  do,  writes  Bishop  Westcott, 

"was  to  subdue  new  races,  to  mould  a  Christian  Society,  to 
vindicate  the  majesty  of  Divine  Law  in  the  face  of  barljarous 
despotism,  to  witness  to  the  reality  of  the  eternal  and  the  unseen 
in  the  face  of  rude  passion  and  brute  force."  * 

There  is  still  one  further  aspect  of  the  matter  which 
should  not  be  overlooked.  The  Bible  was  not  for  our 
medieval  ancestors  what  it  is  for  us.  In  any  endeavour, 
therefore,  to  understand  the  influences  which  may  be 
conceived  to  have  actuated  their  Church,  we  must  be 
on  our  guard  against  anachronisms.  For  we  are  apt, 
though  unconsciously,  to  carry  back  ideas  and  feelings 
which  belong  to  our  own  times  into  an  age  when  they 
were  unknown.  To  men  of  the  present  day  the  Bible 
*  The  Bible  in  the  Church  (1889),  P-  iQi- 


1 8         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

comes  with    a    set   of    certain   well-defined    historical 
associations.     We    cannot    altogether    disconnect    our 
conception   of    it   from   the    position    which    properly 
belongs   to   it   in   Reformation   times.      By   a   natural 
train   of  ideas   it   contrasts   itself   in   our   minds   with 
*'  Tradition."     It  allies   itself  with   an   intellectual  and 
moral     disposition,    with    a    way   of    looking    at    and 
thinking  about   religious   questions,  which,  since    Pro- 
testantism   is    rather    a    temper    than    a    creed,   may 
be    described    as     Protestant    or    individualistic.       It 
is   necessary,  therefore,   to   beware   of  losing  our   his- 
torical   perspective.      The    Bible,    so    far    as    regards 
an    apprehension    of   its    moral    and    spiritual    value, 
was  one   thing   for  men   of  the   intellectual  stamp  of 
Wycliffe,  or  Tyndale,  or  Cranmer ;  and  quite  another 
thing  for  men  of  an  earlier  day,  such  as  Gregory  and 
Bede.     For  the  wants  of  the  medieval  mind  lay  in  a 
wholly  different  plane  from  the  wants  of  the  Reforma- 
tion   mind.       It    was    not    the    open    Bible    towards 
which  the  England   of  the   monks   naturally  inclined. 
Medievalism   asked   not   for   a   book   but   for   religion 
externalised    in    an    institution.      The    age    was    one 
not  of  reflection  but  of  faithful  and  undiscriminating 
obedience.     It   found   its   full   satisfaction   in   the  rule 
and  guidance  of  the  visible  Church.     It  was  this  visible 
Church  which  kept  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell,  and 
to  which   the    custody   of    the    Holy   Scriptures    had 
been   entrusted.      In   this   Church,   and   in   her  alone, 
the  religious  ideal  of  those  times  found  its  full  realisa- 
tion.     Too    ignorant    for    doubt,    too    uncritical    and 
superstitious  for    a  reasoned   faith,  inert    and    torpid 


TYPE  OF  RELIGION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     19 

under  the  numbing  influence  of  an  incurious  acqui- 
escence, men  gratefully  accepted  at  the  hands  of  a 
nursing  mother  the  spiritual  sustenance  which  was  best 
adapted  to  their  intellectual  childhood. 

It  may  assist  us  to  take  an  illustration.  If  we 
were  to  be  asked  at  the  present  day  what  we  conceived 
to  be  the  central  fact  of  the  Bible,  we  should  point 
at  once  to  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  in  the 
worship  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  figure  of  the  Redeemer 
had  almost  receded  out  of  sight.  "  Pray  first,"  (so  the 
worshipper  was  bidden,) 

"  Pray  first  to  St  Mary,  and  the  Holy  Apostles,  and  the  Holy 
Martyrs,  and  to  all  God's  Saints  .  .  .  and  end  by  signing  yourself, 
and  by  singing  your  Pater  Noster."  * 

Christ  was  to  be  sought  and  found  not  in  the  Bible 
but  in  the  mass,  and  it  was  only  through  the  sacraments 
that  the  human  soul  could  be  permitted  to  approach 
Him. 

It  was  not,  then,  in  a  spiritual  but  in  a  sensuous, 
in  a  symbolic,  and  in  a  materialised  form  that  the 
Church  in  those  far-distant  days  presented  her  teach- 
ing. So  low  indeed  had  sunk  the  general  mental  level 
that  men  were  well-nigh  incapable  of  any  abstract 
conceptions  at  all.  Religion,  accordingly,  tended  more 
and  more  to  resolve  itself  into  a  mere  piety  of  ritual, 
and  into  a  mechanical  system  of  external  observances. 
There  was  a  craving  for  the  concrete,  the  visible,  the 
pictorial ;  for  something  which  the  bodily  senses  could 
readily  apprehend  ;  for  ideals  embodied  in  institutions  ; 

*  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  of  England  (1840), 
vol.  ii.,  p.  425. 


20         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

for  shrines  and  relics ;  for  ornate  services ;  for  an 
imposing  ceremonial.  The  Virgin  and  the  Saints, 
as  being  in  nearer  touch  with  man  than  the  more 
awful  personalities  of  the  Trinity,  were  invited  to 
perform  what  Holy  Scripture  had  defined  to  be  the 
mediatorial  work  of  the  Saviour.  The  Bible,  as  the 
story  of  the  redeeming  love  of  a  Father,  had  more 
and  more  faded  out  of  view,  while  allegory  and  legend 
had  substituted  in  its  place  a  miscellany  of  Christianised 
mythology.  Between  the  educated  and  the  uneducated, 
between  the  clergy  and  laity,  there  stood  interposed 
the  double  barrier  of  a  priestly  class  and  of  a  foreign 
tongue.  Such,  to  use  the  terminology  of  these  modern 
scientific  days,  was  the  "  psychological  climate  "  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  it  is  plain  that  it  was  not  of  a 
character  to  inspire  men  with  any  personal  interest  in 
the  question  of  an  open  Bible. 

We  are  now,  perhaps,  more  nearly  in  a  position  to 
understand  why  the  Latin  Bible  which  accompanied  the 
monks  from  Rome  should  have  enjoyed  so  long  a  reign. 

It  was  maintained,  then,  in  the  first  place,  because 
its  maintenance  was  in  full  harmony  with  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  Latin  Christianity.  It  was  maintained,  in  the 
second  place,  because  whereas  the  work  of  translation  is 
essentially  a  literary  task,  and  needs  both  some  adequate 
motive  to  inspire  it  and  a  public  to  give  it  welcome,  the 
Church  of  those  early  centuries  was  confronted  with  the 
great  practical  problem  of  discipline,  while  there  was  as 
yet  neither  any  such  inspiring  motive  nor  any  such  read- 
ing public.  It  was  maintained,  lastly,  because  that  sense 
of  the  value  of  an  open  Bible  which  is  so  prominent  a 


THE  LATIN  TONGUE  AND  CHURCH  SUPREMACY  21 

feature  in  Teutonic  Christianity  either  formed  no  part 
of  the  medieval  consciousness,  or,  if  present  to  it  at 
all,  was  yet  dwarfed  into  relative  insignificance  by  an  all 
but  universal  belief  in  the  mediatorial  efficacy  of  the 
ordinances  of  the  Church  apart  from  the  individual 
responsibilities  and  moral  life  of  her  children. 

In  this  jealous  retention  of  the  Latin  tongue,  the 
Church,  from  her  own  point  of  view,  was  amply 
justified.  Latin  was  an  indispensable  link  in  the 
chain  by  which  Christianity,  as  then  understood,  was 
moored  to  the  contemporary  world  of  thought  and 
action.  It  was  mainly  by  the  exclusive  use  of  one  and 
the  same  ecclesiastical  language  that  the  unity  of 
Christendom,  religious,  official,  and  diplomatic,  was 
kept  cemented.  Clearly,  therefore,  it  was  of  vital  im- 
portance that  no  new  literary  pretender  should  be  per- 
mitted to  endanger  a  monopoly  on  whose,  preservation 
so  much  was  felt  to  depend. 

The  apprehension  of  such  a  danger  was  indeed  no 
empty  dream.  Looking  onward  from  earlier  times  to 
the  developments  of  the  fourteenth  century,  we  find  the 
centrifugal  and  self-asserting  spirit  of  nationality  busy 
in  the  consolidation  of  the  secular  State,  and  in  mould- 
ing into  literary  form  the  languages  of  a  new  world. 
And  even  as  we  watch,  the  venerable  unity  of  the 
Latin  Church  is  seen  slowly  dissolving  away,  while 
there  falls  upon  the  ear  the  death-knell  of  the  Middle 
Age,  and  the  footfall  of  the  Renaissance. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  mainly  occupied  with  the 
influence  of  the  Latin  element  in  the  history  of  the 
preparatory   period    now   under    consideration.      It   is 


22         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

time  to  approach  the  subject  from  its  other  side,  and 
to  turn  to  the  Teutonic  element  in  that  history. 

When,  in  the  person  of  Augustine,  Rome  revisited 
the  country  which  she  had  in  times  past  administered 
for  some  four  hundred  years  as  a  Celtic  province,  she 
found  herself  among  a  people  who  had  been  in  no 
degree  Romanised.  Unlike  the  Franks  and  the  Goths, 
the  Saxons  had  never  felt  the  magic  of  the  Roman 
name  and  influence.  They  knew  nothing  of  Roman 
modes  of  thought  and  feeling.  Teutons  in  blood,  in 
speech,  and  in  religion,  they  were  a  loose  aggregate  of 
tribes  to  whom,  under  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings,  their 
new  island  home,  lying  outside  the  boundaries  of  the 
Roman  Empire  and  hidden  away  far  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  the  West,  had  given  a  position  of  exceptional 
independence.  Still  their  strong  instinct  of  political 
liberty  was  not  felt  to  be  irreconcilable  with  due 
loyalty  in  their  ecclesiastical  obedience  to  Rome.  As 
we  unfold  the  scroll  of  our  history,  we  may  imagine  our- 
selves to  be  watching  the  busy  Saxon  workshop  in  which 
the  raw  material  necessary  for  the  making  of  a  home 
Bible  is  all  the  while  being  steadily  fashioned.  Such 
material  lay  ready  to  hand  in  the  development  of  the 
English  language  and  in  the  independence  of  the 
English  character. 

It  was  Wycliffe's  Teutonic  love  of  truth  and  freedom 
which  moved  him  to  give  his  countrymen  the  open 
Scriptures  as  their  best  safeguard  and  protection  against 
the  moral  corruptions  and  bondage  and  obscurantism  of 
Papal  Rome;  and  it  was  the  growth  of  the  English 
language  into  a  literary  medium  of  expression,  ripen- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  PAGANISM  23 

ing  for  his  work  of  translation  as  Italian  had  ripened 
for  Dante,  and  as  German  was  presently  to  grow  ripe 
for  Luther,  which  first  made  a  people's  Bible  possible. 
Among  the  many  claims  which  our  national  Bible 
has  upon  our  veneration  is  the  witness  which  is 
borne  by  its  language  and  by  its  history  to  our 
imperishable  instinct  of  race.  Socially,  politically, 
and  ecclesiastically  we  owe  much  to  the  stimula- 
ting shock  of  successive  invasions  and  conquests.  But 
it  is  not  by  the  grace  alone  of  either  Roman,  Dane,  or 
Norman  that  we  are  what  we  are  to-day.  It  is  mainly 
by  the  effectual  working  of  that  sturdy  Saxon  spirit 
which  from  the  first  has  coursed  so  strongly  in  our  blood. 

The  conversion  of  England  to  the  Latin  faith  is 
sometimes  pictured  to  us  under  a  strange  mis- 
apprehension of  the  facts.  It  is  represented  as 
though  it  had  been  of  the  nature  of  some  sudden  and 
startling  transformation  scene,  or  as  if  it  might  best  be 
compared  to  the  swift  sweep  of  some  huge  tidal  wave, 
pouring  itself  irresistibly  over  the  land,  and  submerging 
at  once  and  for  ever  the  old  Teutonic  gods,  the  old 
customs,  the  old  beliefs,  the  old  everyday  life,  of  our 
Pagan  forefathers. 

Very  different  was  the  actual  progress  of  this  new 
faith  as  we  catch  its  reflection  in  our  early  annals. 
Although  the  adoption  of  Christianity  by  the  tribal  king 
carried  with  it  the  nominal  acquiescence  of  the  tribe 
itself,  yet  the  moral  change,  at  the  best,  was  but  of 
gradual  and  tardy  growth.  There  was  an  intervening 
process  of  action  and  reaction,  of  ebb  and  flow,  of  success 
and  failure  ;  and  it  was  only  step  by  step,  and  before  the 


24         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

successive  exertions  of  Roman,  Celt,  and  Greek ; — of 
Augustine,  of  Aidan,  and  of  Theodore — that  Woden 
gave  place  to  Christ.  Not  by  persecution,  but  by 
gentleness  and  persuasion,  by  preaching  and  teaching, 
by  the  moral  power  of  devoted  lives,  by  the  prestige 
and  splendour  of  Latin  Christianity,  the  fierce  Saxon 
warriors  were  attracted,  tamed,  and  won. 

The  policy  which,  through  his  letters,  Gregory  was 
careful  to  impress  upon  his  mission,  was  in  the  main  a 
policy  of  conciliation  and  compromise.  The  sturdy 
stock  of  our  Teutonic  parentage  was  not  recklessly  and 
suddenly  hewn  down  by  foreign  axes  to  make  room  for 
an  alien  growth.  On  the  contrary,  the  new  was  so 
gradually  grafted  upon  the  old,  that,  in  the  more  remote 
districts,  remnants  of  the  ancient  Paganism  lingered 
sullenly  on  for  centuries.  The  change  which  little 
by  little  came  over  the  country  was  effected  rather 
by  tactful  adaptation  than  by  revolution.  The 
old  Adam  of  the  Teuton  was  not  all  in  a  moment 
washed  away  by  the  waters  of  baptism.  Just  as  the 
feasts  of  Eostre-tide  and  Yule-tide  became,  after  a 
while,  the  Easter  and  Christmas  of  the  Church ;  just  as 
while  the  months  of  the  year  preserved  the  nomenclature 
of  Rome,  the  divinities  whom  Penda  worshipped  lived 
on  as  the  tutelary  guardians  of  the  days  of  the  Christian 
week ;  just  as  the  temple  in  the  grove  survived  within 
bow-shot  of  the  church  upon  the  hill,  and  the  Holy  Rood 
just  alongside  of  the  sacred  tree ;  so,  too,  the  native 
language  and  the  native  character  of  the  convert  were 
welcomed  by  the  monks  into  their  service,  and  were 
made  instrumental  to  the  furtherance  of  their  evangelis^ 


THE  STORY  OF  CAEDMON  25 

ing  work.  Under  the  encouragement  and  protection  of 
the  Church  a  home-born  literature  grew  up  during  the 
seventh  and  eighth  centuries  as  the  lowly  handmaid  of 
religion,  and  the  heathen  bard  became  transformed, 
under  the  inspiration  of  a  nobler  creed,  into  the  Christian 
poet. 

Such  a  poet  was  Caedmon,  the  Amos  of  English 
literature,  a  poet  probably  of  mixed  Celtic  and 
Saxon  blood,  and  the  earliest  of  our  English  singers. 
To  the  music  of  his  native  harp  the  Bible-story,  in  the 
form  of  a  poetic  paraphrase,  begins  to  pass  out  of  its 
old  Latin  into  its  new  English  dress,  out  of  the  dim 
seclusion  of  cell  and  school  to  the  open  sunlight  of 
the  countryside,  and  from  the  narrow  limits  of  the 
parchment-scroll  to  the  wandering  minstrelsy  of  the 
vernacular  poetry. 

Caedmon's  date  is  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh 
century,  and  his  poetry  was  in  truth  the  only  Bible  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons.*  In  a  sense,  therefore,  he  belongs 
almost  as  much  to  the  history  of  the  English 
Bible  as  to  the  history  of  English  literature.  Little 
is  known  about  his  personality,  and  that  little  we  learn 
entirely  from  Bede.  An  illiterate  peasant  of  North- 
umbria,  he  worked  as  a  farm-labourer  in  the  employ 
of  the  bailiff  of  the  great  Abbey  of  Whitby,  known 
at  that  time  as  "  Streane-shalch."  The  Lady- Abbess 
was  the  Princess  Hild,  a  convert  who  had  received 
baptism  at  the  hands  of  Paulinus,  the  Apostle  of 
Northumbria,  and  one  of  Augustine's  little  band. 

The  ancient  abbey  stood  high  up  on  the  cliff  just 

*  English  Writers^  by  Henry  Morley  (1888),  vol.  ii.,  p.  7i- 


26         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

where  the  abbey  church  of  Whitby  stands  to-day. 
Doubtless  there  was  some  underlying  basis  of  fact 
for  the  legendary  story  which  we  owe  to  Bede,  and 
which  reminds  us  of  the  call  of  Hesiod  to  the  service 
of  the  Muses  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Helicon.  The 
poetry  which  had  so  long  lain  hidden  in  the  heart  of  one 
of  the  unlettered  dependents  of  the  monastery  may  well 
have  been  quickened  into  utterance  by  the  vitalising 
breath  of  Christianity.  For  Bede,  however,  who  was 
but  a  child  when  Caedmon  died,  the  wonder-working 
spirit  of  the  times  has  shed  the  lustre  of  the  super- 
natural over  a  tale  which  even  without  its  aid  would 
have  been  sufficiently  remarkable. 

Caedmon  had  passed  the  term  of  middle  life  without 
having  shown  any  signs  of  poetic  genius.  It  had 
been  his  habit,  at  the  festive  gatherings  in  the  great 
mead-hall,  when  the  harp  came  round  to  him  and  it 
was  his  turn  to  sing,  to  rise  from  his  seat  and  leave  the 
feast,  either  because  he  knew  not  how  to  sing,  or  because 
the  rough  war-songs  of  the  Saxon  bards  were  no  longer 
to  his  taste.  One  night  when  this  had  happened,  and  he 
had  gone  out  to  look  after  the  horses  and  the  cattle, 
he  fell  asleep  in  the  stable  buildings,  and  as  he  slept  he 
hearH  a  voice  saying,  "  Caedmon,  sing  to  me."  And  he 
said,  "  I  cannot  sing,  and  for  that  reason  I  have  come 
away  from  the  feast."  And  again  the  voice  was  in  his 
ears,  "  Caedmon,  sing  to  me  ; "  and  he  answered,  "  What 
shall  I  sing?"  "Sing  to  me  the  first  beginning  of 
created  things."  So  the  words  came  unbidden  to  his 
lips,  and  in  his  dream  he  sang  his  hymn  of  praise  to 
God   the   Creator.     Whether  we  have  the   hymn  just 


CAEDMOJSrS  HYMN  27 

as   he   sang   it   is   not   certain,   but   the   sense   of  the 
opening  lines  is  as  follows : — 

"Now  must  we  praise  the  Maker  of  the  Celestial  Kingdom, 
the  power  and  counsel  of  the  Creator,  the  deeds  of  the  Father 
of  Glory,  how  he,  since  he  is  the  Eternal  God,  was  the  beginning 
of  all  wonders,  who  first.  Omnipotent  Guardian  of  the  human 
kind,  made  for  the  sons  of  men  Heaven  for  their  roof,  and  then 
the  earth."  * 

And  in  the  morning  he  told  the  wonder  to  the 
bailiff,  and  the  bailiff  brought  him  up  to  the  Lady  Hild. 
And  when  sufficient  trial  had  been  made  of  him,  it 
was  found  that  he  had  indeed  the  divine  gift.  For 
no  sooner  had  any  portion  of  the  Bible-story  been 
translated  to  him  out  of  Latin  by  the  monks,  than 
he  forthwith  sang  it  to  the  accompaniment  of  his 
harp  in  the  short  alliterative  lines  of  Saxon  verse. 

At  the  invitation  of  the  abbess  he  now  put  off  the 
secular  habit,  received  a  welcome  into  the  company  of 
the  brethren,  and  became  duly  instructed  in  the  entire 
course  of  sacred  history.  "  And  he  turned  into  sweetest 
song,"  continues  Bede,  "all  that  he  could  learn  from 
hearing  it,  and  he  made  his  teachers  his  listeners.  His 
song  was  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  of  the  birth  of 
man,  of  the  history  of  Genesis.  He  sang,  too,  the 
Exodus  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  and  their  entrance  into 
the  promised  land,  and  many  other  of  the  narratives  of 
Holy  Scripture.  Of  the  incarnation  also  did  he  sing, 
and  of  the  passion  ;  of  the  resurrection  and  ascension 
into  heaven  ;  of  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the 
teaching  of  the  apostles  .  ,  . ;  in  all  of  which  he  tried  to 

*  Stopford  Brooke,  History  of  Early  English  Literature^  ii.,  72. 


28         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

draw  men  from  wicked  ways  to  the  love  of  well-doing. 
For  he  was  a  most  religious  man."* 

Bede's  beautiful  tale  will  at  once  be  seen  to  be 
of  the  greatest  interest  and  significance.  The  details  of 
Caedmon's  poetry  lie  outside  our  limits,  but  its  rise  and 
spread  are  closely  connected  with  the  subject  of  the 
English  Bible.  At  a  time  when  our  rude  ancestors 
were  quite  unqualified  to  receive  instruction  in  a  written 
form,  portions  of  the  Bible-story  began  to  be  sung  in 
their  ears  in  the  well-known  strains  of  that  old  Teutonic 
minstrelsy  which  was  their  delight,  and  even  in  the 
very  terms  of  the  familiar  Saxon  warfare.  For,  in  the 
poetry  of  the  Caedmonic  cycle,  the  Abraham  of  Hebrew 
history  will  be  found  figuring  in  battle  as  a  genuine 
Saxon  Atherling,  while  the  Israelites  themselves  fight 
with  all  the  savage  fierceness  of  the  hosts  of  Penda. 

Nor  was  this  minstrelsy  confined  to  the  monastic 
circle,  but  its  songs  were  sung  before  the  King  and  his 
warriors,  and  among  the  peasantry  and  artisans  of  the 
village  and  the  homestead.  Other  and  later  poets, 
such  as  Cynewulf,  seem  to  have  caught  something  of 
Caedmon's  primitive  inspiration,  though  they  sound  a 
more  reflective  and  self-conscious  note  than  his. 
Through  his  means,  and  through  theirs,  the  Scripture 
narratives  circulated  for  many  generations  throughout 
the  North,  and  the  common  folk  acquired,  in  a  form 
which  fixed  itself  in  their  memories,  a  rudimentary 
Bible-knowledge  to  which,  otherwise,  they  must  for 
long  have  remained  strangers. 

This   cycle    of   popular   poetry   was   not   restricted 
*  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History^  iv.,  24. 


THE  SAXONS  AND  THE  BIBLE  29 

either  to  the  Old  Testament  or  to  the  New,  for  it  is 
in  the  poems  attributed  to  Caedmon,  that,  for  the  first 
time  in  England,  we  meet  with  the  great  legend  of 
Satan,  the  leader  of  those  rebellious  angels  who 
challenged  the  power  and  sovereignty  of  God,  and  were 
in  consequence  cast  headlong  out  of  heaven.  Whence 
it  was  that  this  legend,  made  familiar  to  us  all 
by  Milton,  may  originally  have  been  derived,  it  is 
not  easy  to  say,  nor  is  the  passing  allusion  to  it  in  the 
epistle  of  Jude  of  much  help  to  us.  Probably  it  may 
have  worked  its  way  from  the  far  East  through 
Alexandria  into  the  West,  but  the  question,  full  of 
interest  though  it  be,  is  not  one  which  could  suitably 
be  considered  here. 

The  wide  and  enduring  popularity  of  the  religious 
vernacular  poetry  shows  clearly  the  natural  attraction 
which,  especially  in  its  narratives,  the  Bible  must  have 
had  for  the  Teutonic  imagination.  Nor  is  there  any- 
thing in  this  to  cause  surprise.  For  if  on  its  lower  side 
the  Saxon  temperament  had  its  elements  of  fierceness, 
of  coarseness,  and  of  sensuality,  it  was  not  wanting  in 
a  higher  side.  Our  ancestors  brought  over  with  them 
many  a  mental  feature  which  developed  itself,  as  time 
went  on,  and  became  more  marked  under  the  influence 
of  a  higher  faith.  Among  such  features  we  may  point 
to  their  deep  sense  of  the  divine  in  nature,  their  grave 
moral  earnestness,  their  loyalty,  their  practical  turn  of 
mind,  their  love  of  poetry  and  song,  their  wistful 
curiosity  about  the  unseen  world.  All  these  combined 
together  to  form  a  complex  consciousness  which  re- 
sponded eagerly  to  the  preaching  of  the  monks,  and  to 


30         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

.the  natural  influence,  upon  wild  untutored  impulses,  of 
the  ordered  austerity  and  self-effacement  of  the  early- 
monastic  ideal  while  yet  in  its  untarnished  freshness.  It 
was  not  long  indeed  before  the  monasteries  began  to 
degenerate  into  mere  cities  of  refuge,  within  which  men 
and  women  sought  to  escape  from  a  world  in  which 
they  had  become  either  too  effeminate,  or  too  ascetic, 
or  too  indolent,  to  work  and  fight.  But  at  first  these 
scattered  houses  were  the  only  local  centres  of  spiritual 
life  and  light,  the  only  fortresses  which  could  give  shelter 
to  those  single-hearted  pioneers  of  Christianity  who  went 
forth,  as  "  the  chivalry  of  God,"  not  to  escape  from,  but 
to  battle  bravely  with  the  world,  and  to  redeem  it  as 
best  they  might  from  the  bondage  of  ignorance  and  of  sin. 
While  Caedmon  was  singing  in  the  North,  the 
popular  poetry  was  being  utilised  in  the  South  for  the 
purpose  of  religious  instruction  by  Aldhelm,*  Abbot  of 
Malmesbury.  Impressed  with  the  sense  of  how  little 
the  peasantry  seemed  to  care  for  his  English  sermons, 
the  good  abbot,  who  was  one  of  the  most  skilful 
musicians  of  his  day,  took  up  his  position  in  the  garb 
of  a  minstrel  on  a  bridge  over  which  they  had  to  pass, 
and  having  first  enthralled  his  audience  by  the  sweet- 
ness with  which  he  sang,  he  presently  attuned  his  song 
to  a  religious  note,  and  so  by  the  magic  spell  of  the 
Muses  won  over  to  a  better  life  many  an  uncultured 
soul  whom  a  homily  would  have  only  sent  to  sleep,  and 
whom  even  the  terrors  of  excommunication  would  have 
left  lamentably  unmoved. 

*  Aldhelm  made  a  translation  of  the  Psalter,  but  whether  we 
now  possess  it  is  uncertain. 


THE  CONFERENCE  AT  WHITBY  31 

But  it  was  not  to  the  ear  alone  that  the  missionaries 
made  their  earliest  appeal.     The   momentous  decision 
of  the   Whitby   Conference,   in   A.D.   664,  had    caused 
Northumbria  to  break  with  lona  and  Celtic  Christianity, 
and  to  follow  the  rule  of  Canterbury  and  Rome.*     By 
that  decision  England  lost  much,  but  gained  even  more 
than  she  lost.     She  lost  the  fervour  of  Celtic  enthusiasm, 
and  the  earnest  simplicity  of  the  Celtic  missionary  spirit. 
But  the  Celt  was  better  suited  to  win  converts  than  to 
train  and  manage   them  when   won.     Through   Rome 
England  gained  the  power  of  organisation,  the  power 
to  develop  herself  into   a  national  Church,  while   she 
was  preserved  from  the  sterility  and  narrowness  which 
are   born   of   spiritual   isolation.     The   local   centre   of 
gravity   was    transferred   from   the   monastery  to    the 
bishop,  the  unity  which  was  an  indispensable  condition 
of  her  advancement  was  made  possible,  and  the  infant 
Church,  now  become  once  for  all  an  integral  part  of  the 
religious  system  of  the  West,  was  placed  in  permanent 
touch  with  what   remained  of  Roman  civilisation   and 
culture.     The  change  soon  made  itself  felt  in  many  ways, 
and  in  none  more  significantly  than  in  the  rich  embellish- 
ment and  beautification  of  church  interiors. 

Benedict  Biscop,  Abbot  of  Wearmouth  towards  the 
close  of  the  seventh  century,  brought  over  from  Rome  a 
number  of  religious  paintings,  which  he  arranged  in  his 
churches  so  as  to  present  to  the  wandering  and  curious 
eyes  of  those  who  were  unable  to  read,  the  chief  scenes 
in  the  lives  of  patriarchs  and  of  apostles,  of  the  Virgin 
and  of  Jesus. 

*  Green's  History  of  the  English  People  (1877),  vol.  i.,  pp.  56-7, 


32         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

*'  The  most  illiterate  peasant  could  not  enter  the  church  with- 
out receiving  profitable  instruction.  He  beheld  the  lovable  face  of 
Christ  and  His  Saints,  or  learned  from  looking  at  them  the  impor- 
tant mysteries  of  the  Incarnation  and  Redemption,  or  he  was 
induced  by  the  sight  of  the  Last  Judgment  to  descend  into  his  own 
breast  and  to  deprecate  the  anger  of  the  Almighty."  * 

In  this  manner  was  the  story  of  the  Bible  gently 
yet  forcibly  brought  home  to  ignorant  worshippers  from 
the  countryside  through  the  ministry  of  poetry  and  art, 
and  a  kind  of  rude  preparation  made  for  the  miracle- 
plays,  the  religious  drama,  and  the  Biblia  Pauperum 
of  later  centuries.  But  the  peasantry  were  not  the 
only  class  who  in  these  early  days  were  calling  for  an 
interpreter.  As  converts  multiplied,  so  did  the  need 
increase  for  parish  priests  to  minister  among  them 
and  to  teach  them,  while  to  the  large  majority  of  such 
native  clergy  Latin  would  naturally  be  an  unknown 
tongue.  Bede  speaks  of  these  native  clergy  as  "  Sacer- 
dotes  idiotce"  by  which  he  means  priests  who  knew 
only  Anglo-Saxon,  and  he  tells  us  that  it  was  mainly 
for  their  guidance  and  use  that  he  often  busied 
himself,  and  that  he  encouraged  other  scholars  to  busy 
themselves,  in  translating  into  the  vernacular  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed.  As  bearing  on  this 
point  we  may  quote  an  injunction  to  parish  priests 
which  appears  in  the  canons  of  .^Ifric,  Abbot  of 
Ensham,  in  the  century  before  the  Norman  invasion  : — 

"  The  mass-priest  shall  on  Sundays  and  mass  days  tell  to  the 
people  the  sense  of  the  Gospel  in  English^  and  so  too  of  the  Pater 
Noster  and  the  Creed.  Blind  is  the  teacher  if  he  know  not  book- 
learning." 

*  Bede's  Life  of  the  Abbot  of  Weannouth. 


DEATH  OF  BEDE  33 

It  is  to  be  feared,  however,  that  this  not  very 
exalted  standard  was  often  far  above  the  attainment 
of  the  country  parson  of  the  tenth  century. 

Bede  also  translated  into  Anglo-Saxon  the  Gospel  of 
St  John,  and  perhaps  we  may  infer  from  his  selection  of 
the  fourth  gospel  for  his  purpose  that  the  three  earlier 
ones  had  been  translated  already.  In  him,  therefore,  we 
have  the  first  link  in  the  chain  of  translators,  which, 
through  Wycliffe,  Tyndale,  Coverdale,  and  their  succes- 
sors in  the  continuous  work  of  revision,  binds  the  eighth 
to  the  nineteenth  century  in  the  history  of  the  English 
Bible.  Cuthbert,  one  of  Bede's  devoted  followers,  has 
told  us  the  story  of  the  completion  of  his  master's  labours, 
and  a  very  touching  story  it  is.*  Through  the  whole  of 
the  Eve  of  Ascension  Day,  735  A.D.,  the  grand  old  monk 
of  Jarrow,  the  ablest  scholar  of  his  time  in  Europe,  had 
been  dictating,  though  with  waning  strength,  his  ver- 
nacular version  of  St  John.  Evening  came  on,  and 
then  the  night,  but  there  still  remained  one  chapter 
untranslated.  "  Most  dear  master,"  they  reminded 
him  when  morning  broke,  "  there  is  one  chapter 
yet  to  do."  "  Take  then  your  pen,"  he  said,  "  and  write 
quickly."  The  spirit  indeed  was  willing  but  the  flesh 
was  fast  failing,  and  one  by  one  the  brethren  came 
to  his  bedside  to  say  their  last  farewells.  Then,  as 
darkness  again  began  to  close  in,  the  little  scribe  whose 
place  it  was  to  be  near  him  bent  down  and  whispered, 
"  Master,  even  now  there  is  one  sentence  more,"  and  he 
answered  him,  "  Write  on  fast."  And  the  boy  wrote  on 
and  cried, "  See,  dear  master,  it  is  finished  now."     "  Yes," 

*  Cuthberfs  Letter  to  Cuthwine. 

\  C 


\ 


\ 


34         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

murmured  the  dying  Saint, "  you  speak  well,  it  is  finished 
now.  Take  therefore  my  head  into  your  hands  and  lay 
me  down  opposite  my  holy  place,  where  it  was  my  wont 
to  pray."  And  so,  on  the  pavement  of  his  little  cell, 
they  laid  him  down,  and  with  the  "  Gloria "  on  his 
lips  the  aged  monk  delivered  up  his  spirit,  and 
departed  hence  to  the  heavenly  kingdom. 

Nothing  has  come  down  to  us  of  Bede's  English 
work.  No  doubt  it  perished  together  with  many  other 
treasures  of  the  Northumbrian  monasteries  when  the 
Danes  laid  the  land  waste. 

Passing  onwards  to  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth 
century,  we  have  had  preserved  to  us  an  English 
Psalter,  now  in  the  Cotton  Collection  at  the  British 
Museum,  not  written  out  in  an  independent  form,  but 
"  interlineated,"  as  it  is  called,  with  a  seventh  century 
Latin  manuscript  of  the  Psalms,  according  to  the  Roman 
Psalter,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  the  identical  copy 
sent  over  by  Gregory  for  the  use  of  Augustine  soon  after 
his  arrival  in  Kent. 

Religious  life  was  nearly  extinct  when  Alfred  the 
Great  gave  all  his  energies  to  the  revival  of  a  native 
literature. 


"  I  thought  I  saw,"  says  the  King  in  the  preface  to  his  translation 
of  the  Pastoral  of  Pope  Gregory,  "how,  before  all  was  spoiled 
and  burnt,  the  churches  were  filled  with  treasures  of  books,  yet 
but  little  fruit  was  reaped  of  them,  for  men  could  understand 
nothing  of  them,  as  they  were  not  written  in  their  own  native 
tongue.  Few  persons  south  of  the  H  umber  could  understand 
the  services  in  English  or  translate  Latin  into  English.  I  think 
there  were  not  many  who  could  do  so  beyond  the  Humber,  and 
none  to  the  south  of  the  Thames." 


THE  LINDISFARNE  GOSPELS  35 

We  must  not  linger  over  the  version  of  the  Deca- 
logue which  this  splendid  King,  in  his  characteristic  spirit 
of  religious  reference,  places  at  the  head  of  his  Book  of 
Laws,  or  on  his  unfinished  version  of  the  Psalms,  and 
we  travel  on  accordingly  to  notice  certain  notable 
translations  of  the  Gospels,  all  of  which  date  from  about 
this  period. 

The  earliest  of  them,  like  the  Psalter  just  referred  to, 
is  in  interlinear  form, — that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  word-for- 
word  rendering  of  a  Latin  original,  in  which  each 
English  term  is  as  far  as  possible  placed  under  its 
Latin  equivalent.  The  interlineation,  as  distinguished 
from  the  original  document,  was  made,  as  experts  tell 
us,  in  the  tenth  century,  and  is  in  the  dialect  of  North- 
umbria. 

A  special  interest  attaches  to  this  version,  a 
survival  of  bygone  centuries,  which  may  now  be 
seen  in  the  British  Museum.*  The  Anglo-Saxon  trans- 
lator describes  himself  therein  as  "  Aldred,"  miserrimus 
et  indignissimus,  a  priest  of  Holy  Isle,  and  the  date  of 
his  work  is  considered  to  be  not  later  than  the  middle 
of  the  tenth  century.  The  Latin  manuscript  which  he 
uses  as  his  basis  is  the  famous  volume  known  under  the 
various  names  of  "  The  Lindisfarne  Gospels " ;  "  The 
Book  of  Durham " ;  and  "  The  Gospels  of  St  Cuthbert" 
The  writer  of  it  was  Eadfrith,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne ; 
and  the  manuscript  belonged  at  one  time  to  Durham 
Cathedral,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  in  use  by  no 
less  a  person  than  St  Cuthbert.  It  has  been  inferred 
with  great  probability,  from  internal  evidence,  that  the 
*  Cotton  MS.^  Nero,  D.  iv. 


36         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

Bishop  copied  the  Gospels,  towards  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  from  a  Latin  version  which  Adrian, 
the  friend  and  companion  of  Archbishop  Theodore,  had 
brought  with  him  to  England  in  669  A.D,  The  present 
binding  in  gilt  and  precious  stones  is  quite  modern, 
being  the  gift  in  1853  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham. 

The  Latin,  like  the  Latin  from  which  all  these  tenth 
century  interlineations  are  derived,  is  not  identical 
with  that  which  we  find  in  the  text  of  the  Vulgate. 
It  belongs  to  the  far  more  primitive  Latin  versions 
of  the  Bible  which  are  known  collectively  as  the  "  Old 
Latin."  *  Great,  therefore,  is  the  interest  which  lies 
in  the  reflection  that  these  Gospels  take  us  back  as 
far  even  as  the  middle  or  end  of  the  second  century, 
a  date  earlier  by  many  generations  than  that  of  our 
oldest  surviving  uncial  manuscripts  of  the  New 
Testament. 

Eadfrith's  work  was  done  in  honour  of  St  Cuthbert's 
memory,  and  the  manuscript  itself,  exquisitely  bound, 
was  buried  at  Lindisfarne  with  the  body  of  the  Saint. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  both  book  and 
body  were  carried  off  by  the  monks  to  Ireland,  to 
escape  violation  at  the  hands  of  the  marauding  Danes. 
From  Ireland  they  were  shifted  hither  and  thither,  until 
at  last  they  found  their  way  back  to  Lindisfarne, 
and,  when  the  monastery  there  was  finally  dissolved, 
these  precious  Gospels,  with  Aldred's  gloss  written 
between  their  lines,  were  purchased  by  Sir  Robert 
Cotton,  and  are  now  included  in  his  priceless  collection 
at  the  Museum  in  London. 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


RUSffWORTH GOSPELS— jELFRIC'S  PENTATEUCH  37 

A  generation  or  so  later  in  date  than  the  Lindisfarne 
Gospels  another  Anglo-Saxon  gloss  was  made,  which  was 
written  by  an  Irish  scribe,  MacRegol.  This  manuscript 
has  come  down  to  us,  under  the  name  of  its  donor,  as  the 
"  Rushw6rth  "  Gospels,  and  is  now  preserved  in  the  Bod- 
leian Library  at  Oxford.  Two  notes  have  been  appended 
to  the  parchment  which  inform  us  of  its  authorship. 
"  Farmen  the  presbyter,"  we  read,  "  this  book  thus 
glossed,"  And  again,  "  Let  him  that  makes  use  of  me 
pray  for  Owun,  who  glossed  this  for  Farmen,  priest  at 
Harewood." 

To  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  belong  also 
several  closely-related  versions  of  the  Gospels,  one  of 
which  was  much  in  use  in  Wessex.  There  is  a  copy 
of  it  in  the  British  Museum,  and  it  is  of  particular 
interest  as  being  an  independent  version  with  no 
accompanying  Latin  original.  They  may  all  very 
possibly  be  variants  of  some  original  which  has  not 
been  identified,  but  neither  their  authorship  nor  their 
precise  date  has,  so  far,  been  determined. 

At  the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  or  early  in  the 
eleventh,  Abbot  .^Ifric,  the  grammarian,  from  whose 
canons  we  have  already  quoted,  made  an  Anglo-Saxon 
version  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  also  of  Joshua,  Judges, 
Esther,  Job,  part  of  the  Book  of  Kings,  and  the  Books 
of  Judith  and  Maccabees.  In  translating  the  history  of 
the  Maccabean  rising,  ^Elfric  says  he  was  impelled  by  a 
hope  of  thus  kindling  among  his  countrymen  a  patriotic 
war-spirit  against  the  Danes.  He  tells  us,  moreover, 
that  he  was  able  to  make  some  use  of  earlier  versions, 
but  none  such  have  up  to  the  present  time  been   re- 


38         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

covered.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  in  explana- 
tion of  the  gaps  in  our  biblical  literature  which  are  so 
much  to  be  regretted,  that  the  national  records  have 
sadly  suffered  from  the  barbarism  of  the  Dane,  as  well 
as  from  the  contempt  of  the  Norman  for  all  things 
Saxon,  and  from  the  purblind  zeal  of  Protestant  fana- 
ticism at  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 

With  yElfric  ends  the  story  of  those  isolated  and 
fitful  efforts  in  the  field  of  poetic  paraphrase,  gloss, 
and  translation,  of  which  evidence  has  come  down  to  us 
from  ante-Norman  times.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
say  that  the  literary  form  and  character  of  our  Bible  has 
not  been  in  any  way  affected  by  them,  since  Anglo- 
Saxon  English  is  no  more  our  English  than  the  Latin 
Vulgate  is  Italian.  They  derive  their  importance  not 
so  much  from  what  they  are  in  themselves,  as  from  the 
spirit  of  which  they  are  indications. 

It  is  probable  enough  that,  for  the  most  part,  they 
were  produced  with  the  idea  of  interpreting  those 
parts  of  the  Bible  which  would  most  constantly  be  in 
use  through  the  Church  services.  But  the  Latin  Bible 
still  remained  the  official  Bible  of  the  Church,  however 
active  the  zeal  of  independent  scholars  in  the  sphere  of 
paraphrase  or  of  translation.  As  being  the  work  of 
monks  or  of  bishops,  such  versions  would  naturally 
call  for  no  challenge  on  the  part  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities.  But  the  mere  fict  that  these  efforts  were 
made  at  all  must  be  hailed,  whatever  may  have  been 
their  use  and  purpose,  as  a  feature  of  the  times  which 
was  full  of  promise  for  the  future.  They  bear  witness  to 
us  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  Scriptures  were  held 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  WYCUFFE  BIBLE       39 

by  the  native  clergy  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  and 
by  the  lay  friends,  too,  with  whom  they  may  have 
shared  them.  And  they  serve  to  stud  the  somewhat 
gloomy  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  England  with 
literary  signposts,  beckoning  us  onward  along  the  track 
of  the  vernacular  towards  the  promised  land  of  a 
complete  translation. 

Not,  however,  until  the  developments  necessary  for 
the  accomplishment  of  so  great  an  achievement  had 
matured,  could  a  complete  rendering  of  the  Latin 
Vulgate  be  made.  And  when,  in  the  fulness  of  time, 
the  Wycliffe  Bible  at  length  appeared,  it  appeared  not 
merely  as  a  book,  but  as  an  event  of  nothing  less  than 
national  significance.  For  we  see  reflected  in  that 
earliest  of  our  versions  the  wonderful  continuity  and 
persistence  which  mark  not  merely  the  English 
language,  but  the  English  character — a  character 
and  a  language  which  neither  the  harrowing  of  the 
Dane,  nor  the  arrogance  of  the  Norman,  nor  the 
monasticism  of  the  Italian,  has  ever  been  able  per- 
manently to  suppress,  and  in  whose  invincible  buoyancy 
is  to  be  found  the  main  secret  of  English  history. 
What  Horace  sang  long  ago  of  Rome  may  well  be 
applied  to  England  : — 

"  Duris  ut  ilex  tonsa  bipennibus 
Nigrae  feraci  frondis  in  Algido, 
Per  damna,  per  ccEdes  ab  ipso, 
Ducit  opes  animumque  ferro." 
Od.  iv.,  4. 

"  So,  'mid  the  dense-leaved  forests  of  Algidus, 
Mark  we  the  hohn-oak,  lopped  by  the  heartless  axe, 
Turn  loss  to  gain,  havoc  to  healing. 
Quickened  with  life  by  the  very  iron." 


40         MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

We  have  now  arrived,  in  our  preliminary  survey, 
within  sight  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  the  conse- 
quent dethronement  of  Anglo-Saxon,  as  a  literary 
language,  by  Anglo-Norman.  Banished  from  court 
and  castle,  from  the  statute-book  and  from  the  school, 
the  native  tongue  found  shelter  for  a  while  with  the 
Anglo-Saxon  monk,  with  the  parish  priest,  with  the 
villager,  the  minstrel,  and  the  friar.  It  ceased  to  be 
a  written  tongue,  and  began  rapidly  therefore  both 
to  change  in  structure  and  to  become  restricted  in 
vocabulary.  Yet  the  succession  of  paraphrases  and 
translations,  even  under  these  new  circumstances,  never 
wholly  ceased. 

Early  in  the  thirteenth  century  a  monk  of  the  order 
of  St  Augustine — Ormin,  or  Orm,  by  name — produced 
a  metrical  version  of  the  Gospels  and  of  the  Acts,  which 
is  known  as  the  Orniulum^  and  which  has  fortunately 
been  preserved  to  us  in  a  manuscript  of  some  20,000 
lines,  now  numbered  among  the  treasures  of  the  Oxford 
Bodleian  Library.  The  plan  of  the  work  is  to  para- 
phrase the  Gospel  for  the  day,  and  to  accompany  it  with 
a  short  exposition,  composed  in  the  allegorical  manner 
which  was  then  so  universally  the  fashion.  The  voca- 
bulary is  purely  Teutonic,  but  in  cadence  and  in 
syntax  Ormin  has  evidently  been  affected  by  Norman 
influences.  He  gives  his  own  justification  of  his 
version — 

"  If  any  one  wants  to  know  "  (we  render  his  words  in  modern 
English)  "  why  I  have  done  this  deed,  I  have  done  it  so  that  all 
young  Christian  folk  may  depend  upon  the  Gospel  only,  and  may 
follow  with  all  their  might  its  holy  teaching,  in  thought,  and  word, 
and  deed." 


EARLY  TRANSLATIONS  OF  THE  PSALTER       41 

In  addition  to  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Norman-French,  which  was  due  to  the  University  of 
Paris,  and  which  was  in  use  in  Northern  France  about 
1250  A.D.,  there  are  many  metrical  paraphrases  and 
renderings  of  Scripture,  such,  for  example,  as  the 
"  Cursor  Mundi"  perhaps  the  best  known  of  them  all, 
the  '' Salus  anifncB"  or  ''  Sowle-helel'  and  the  ''Story 
of  Genesis  and  Exodus"  which  circulated  freely  in 
parts  of  England  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  detain  the  reader 
with  them,  nor  would  any  mere  string  of  unfamiliar 
names  be  of  the  faintest  interest.  Some  of  them  were 
composed,  it  may  be  added,  for  the  use  not  of  the  con- 
quered Saxon  but  of  his  French-speaking  conquerors. 

It  is  important,  however,  to  notice  that  down  to  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  no  literal  translation 
in  English  prose  of  any  complete  book  of  Scripture  had 
been  produced,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Psalter,  which 
as  speaking  the  universal  language  of  the  human  soul 
has  always  been  the  most  favourite  part  of  the  Bible  for 
devotional  use.  Of  the  Psalter  itself  there  are  at  least 
two  such  prose  translations,  the  one  made  in  the  South 
of  England,  and  the  other  in  the  North.  The  former 
has  somewhat  doubtfully  been  ascribed  to  William  of 
Shoreham,  a  place  near  Sevenoaks  in  Kent.  There 
remain  to  us  some  of  Shoreham's  poems,  and  their 
dialect  is  Kentish,  whereas  this  Psalter  is  in  the  dialect 
of  the  West  Midlands.  The  latter  we  owe  to  Richard 
Rolle,  who  wrote  "  The  Pricke  of  Conscience"  and  is 
more  usually  known  as  "The  Hermit  of  Hampole," 
a   spot   not  far   from  Doncaster   in    Yorkshire.     Their 


42  MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND  AND  THE  BIBLE 

approximate  dates  are  1320  A.D.,  and  1340  A.D.,  and 
the  common  original  from  which  both  translations 
are  made  is  the  Latin  Vulgate.  It  will  be  observed 
that  these  Psalters  bring  us  down  to  the  age  of  Wycliffe, 
who  was  born  in  or  about  the  year  1324  A.D.  We  may 
now,  therefore,  bring  this  chapter  to  an  end  by  summing 
up  the  main  points  which  have  been  engaging  our 
attention. 

We  were  led,  then,  in  the  first  place,  to  inquire  why 
it  was  that,  side  by  side  with  the  progress  of  our  verna- 
cular literature,  the  Latin  Bible  and  the  Latin  Liturgy 
so  long  retained  their  place  unchallenged.  We  saw  that 
medieval  England  was  quite  unripe  for  a  Bible  in  the 
mother  tongue,  and  that  while  the  illiterate  majority 
were  in  no  condition  to  feel  the  want  of  such  a  book,  the 
educated  minority  would  be  averse  to  the  initiation  of 
so  great  a  change. 

In  the  next  place  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  open 
Bible  was  not  really  what  the  age  required  ;  that  the 
tendency  of  the  Church-ritual  was  to  throw  the  written 
word  into  the  background ;  that  religion  was  presented 
mainly  in  a  pictorial  and  ceremonial  form,  and  that  the 
moral  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  lay  hidden  away  under 
a  strange  amalgam  of  allegory  and  legend.  Further- 
more, we  found  that  the  work  of  a  missionary  church 
was  primarily  concerned  with  conduct  and  discipline, 
and  not  with  either  theology  or  literature.  From  these 
considerations  it  seemed  necessarily  to  follow,  that,  if 
the  contents  of  the  Bible  were  to  be  in  any  measure 
brought  home  to  the  artisans  and  peasantry  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  England,  it  must  be  by  means  of  agencies  other 


RECAPITULATION  43 

than  that  of  dumb  parchments.  Such  agencies  we  ob- 
served to  have  been  in  fact  at  work  in  the  preaching  of 
the  local  priest ;  in  the  song  of  the  wandering  minstrel ; 
in  the  educating  influence  of  pictorial  art ;  and,  though 
at  a  later  date,  in  the  attractions  of  the  religious  drama. 

We  laid  stress  on  the  unbroken  continuity  of  the 
Saxon  element  in  our  history,  and  on  the  conversion  of 
England  to  Catholicism  as  having  been  no  sudden 
revolution,  but  rather  a  slow  grafting  process  extending 
over  many  generations.  We  saw  that  there  was  no 
instantaneous  metamorphosis  ;  no  violent  substitution 
of  something  foreign  for  something  native ;  no  great 
convulsion,  in  the  throes  of  which  the  national  identity 
was  dissolved  and  lost  A  momentous  change  no  doubt 
there  was ;  its  effect,  however,  was  not  to  Latinise 
England,  but  rather  to  impress  on  a  given  Teutonic 
texture  an  indelible  Christian  pattern.  The  woof  of 
a  nobler  creed  was  woven,  thread  by  thread,  upon 
the  warp  of  the  national  character. 

And,  lastly,  in  our  brief  survey  of  the  fragmentary 
vernacular  renderings  of  the  more  familiar  portions  of 
the  Latin  Bible  and  Liturgy,  we  saw  that  while  they 
bore  witness  to  that  love  of  the  Scriptures  which  seems 
to  be  ingrained  in  the  English  nature,  they  served  at 
the  same  time  to  keep  the  native  language  alive  and 
vigorous,  and  to  make  available  for  a  large  and  growing 
class,  to  whom  Latin  was  of  course  an  unknown  tongue, 
that  modest  minimum  of  creed  and  prayer,  of  psalm  and 
gospel,  without  which  the  simplest  religious  needs  could 
not  suitably  have  been  met. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 


"  As  such  who  live  in  London  and  like  populous  places,  having 
but  little  ground  for  their  foundations  to  build  houses  on,  may  be 
said  to  enlarge  the  breadth  of  their  houses  in  height  (I  mean  in- 
creasing their  room  in  many  storeys  one  above  another) ;  so  the 
Schoolmen,  lacking  the  latitude  of  general  learning  and  languages, 
thought  to  enlarge  their  minds  by  mounting  up  :  so  improving  their 
small  bottom  with  towering  speculations,  some  of  things  mystical 
that  might  not — more  of  things  difficult  that  could  not — most  of 
things  curious  that  need  not— be  known  unto  us." 

{^FulUr.) 

'ZKLvSaX.a/j.offipdcrrrjv  diirvrdTr)s  cro^tTjs" 
Splitter  of  the  straws  of  the  deepest  philosophy. 

{Anth.  Pal.  xi.  354.) 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

The  time  has  long  gone  by  when  the  Schoolmen,  as 
they  are  called,  could  be  dismissed  from  consideration 
with  nothing  better  than  a  yawn  or  a  sneer. 

It  is  true  that  between  their  modes  of  thought  and 
expression  and  our  own  there  lies  an  impassable  gulf 
Their  folios  are  fossils.  Their  species  is  almost  as 
extinct  as  the  Megatherium  or  the  Dodo.  But  never- 
theless it  has  come  to  be  recognised  that  we  owe  them 
much  more  than  at  first  sight  would  have  appeared 
probable.  For  these  theologians  by  profession  were, 
in  truth,  the  intellectual  torch-bearers  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  is  the  mere  fact  of  their  thinking,  rather  than 
the  intrinsic  value  of  their  thoughts,  which  gives  them 
their  historical  importance.  It  was  the  schoolmen  who 
preserved  the  lamp  of  mental  activity  from  dying  out, 
enabled  reason  once  more  to  lift  up  its  head,  and 
assisted  in  preparing  the  way  both  for  a  religious  and 
for  a  philosophical  reformation. 

We  have  spoken  of  them  as  professional  theologians, 
for  the  fact  that  by  far  the  larger  period  of  their 
activity  was  predominantly  theological  is  a  common- 

47 


48  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

place  of  history.  It  might  fairly,  therefore,  have  been 
expected  that  when  a  succession  of  eminent  men — men 
who  in  sheer  logical  power,  in  acuteness  and  subtlety, 
have  never  been  surpassed — had  for  centuries  devoted 
their  energies  to  the  study  of  the  Latin  Scriptures, 
they  would  have  left  behind  them,  in  the  field  of  their 
labour,  a  bequest  of  permanent  value.  Yet  any  such 
expectation  would  be  doomed  to  disappointment.  The 
conditions  under  which  the  Schoolmen  thought  and 
studied  were  incompatible  with  any  likelihood  of  a 
practically  profitable  result.  For,  having  regard  to 
their  system  as  a  whole,  it  cannot  be  too  clearly 
understood  that  to  the  Bible,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
Reformers  began  to  know  it.  Scholasticism  was  almost 
entirely  a  stranger.  What  these  dialecticians  looked 
for  in  their  Vulgate  was  something  so  remote  from 
that  which  men  sought  and  found  in  the  Bible  of  a 
later  day,  that  to  all  intents  and  purposes  we  might 
be  dealing  with  two  totally  distinct  books.  It  may 
be  well  to  explain  this  point  somewhat  more  fully. 

Broadly  speaking,  then,  the  modern  view  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures  is  that  in  them  we  have  the  historical 
record  of  a  progressive  moral  revelation,  a  revelation 
of  what  God  is,  and  of  what  he  has  done  for  men ; 
and  that  this  record,  which  has  come  down  to  us 
through  the  writings  of  Hebraistic  and  Hellenistic 
Jews,  is  to  be  interpreted  in  accordance  with  the 
recognised  canons  of  literary  and  historical  criticism. 

But  such  a  view  may  almost  be  said  to  be  the 
growth  of  our  own  century.  At  any  rate  it  is  not  to  be 
discovered  in  the  minds  of  these  learned  but  uncultured 


SCHOOLMEN  CONTRASTED  WITH  REFORMERS  49 

doctors.  The  historical  and  ethical  side  of  the  Bible 
is  to  them  as  though  it  did  not  exist.  Moreover, 
it  is  not  to  grammar,  but  to  tradition  and  to  imagina- 
tion that  they  look  for  their  method  of  interpretation. 
With  the  letter-worship  of  a  Jewish  Rabbi  they  not 
unfrequently  combine  the  extravagances  of  an  allegoris- 
ing Gnostic.  For  them,  Revelation,  so  far  from  being 
made  "at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners,"  was 
made  all  at  one  time  and  all  in  the  same  manner. 
Treating  the  record  on  one  uniform  dead  level  of  verbal 
inspiration,  they  search  it  up  and  down,  not  in  order 
to  trace  out  the  spiritual  education  of  the  chosen  race, 
and  through  that  race  of  the  Gentile  world,  but  for  a 
technical  and  abstract  philosophy  of  the  Godhead. 
They  "  rack  the  text  and  drag  it  along  by  the  hair," 
that  they  may  make  it  serve  the  purposes  of  an 
artificial  and  arbitrary  theological  system.  It  is  no 
part  of  their  business  to  teach  men  how  to  live,  but 
only  how  to  define.  Theological  definitions,  however, 
are  not  very  helpful  for  ordinary  men  and  women,  and 
a  diet  of  them,  if  too  long  sustained,  is  apt  to  induce  a 
condition  of  spiritual  anaemia. 

In  sharp  contrast  with  Scholasticism  stands  the  Refor- 
mation. To  the  more  spiritual  among  the  Reformers 
the  Bible  was  a  principle  of  life,  a  book  "  with  wings  and 
feet."  To  the  Schoolmen  it  was  a  repository  of  dead 
texts.  To  the  one  it  was  God  speaking  to  man,  to  the 
other  it  was  a  chain  of  rigid  doctrines.  The  Reformer 
appealed  to  it  against  the  Church.  The  Schoolman  ap- 
pealed to  it  to  defend  the  Church.  To  the  one  it  was  the 
source  and  mainspring  of  spiritual  activity  and  of  truth 

D 


so  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

under  its  highest  manifestation.  To  the  other  it  was 
only  one  out  of  many  sources  of  petrified  dogma,  and  a 
kind  of  logic  quarry  out  of  which  to  hew  material  for 
the  premises  of  a  syllogism.  The  Reformation  sought 
through  it  a  purified  faith.  Scholasticism  sought  to 
utilise  it  in  the  production  of  exhaustive  theological 
manuals  like  the  '^ Summa"  of  Aquinas,*  or  the 
"  Sentences  "  of  Peter  the  Lombard.  If  anything  were 
needed  to  convince  us  that  the  Bible  will  outlive  its 
enemies,  it  might  well  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
reverence  which  it  commands  to-day  has  proved  able  to 
survive  the  tortures  which  its  books  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  cloistered  students  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

With  the  scholastic  metaphysics  we  are  not  here  con- 
cerned. Our  aim  in  the  present  chapter  is  a  historical  aim. 
It  is  to  indicate  the  importance  of  this  strange  period  of 
Scholasticism  as  a  preparatory  school  in  the  education  of 
the  human  mind.  These  indefatigable  doctors  had  of 
course  no  direct  influence  on  the  history  of  the  English 
Bible.  It  does  not  follow  that  they  had  no  influence 
all  in  connection  with  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are 
an  important  link  in  a  long  chain,  of  which  such  mighty 
movements  as  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation 
are  links  as  well.  The  work  of  translating  and  popular- 
ising the  Scriptures  was  the  result  of  many  co-operating 
causes.     And  we  should  do  medievalism  an   injustice 

*  The  works  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  "  Angelic  Doctor,"  make 
up  no  less  than  seventeen  large  folio  volumes.  The  '^  Summa" 
alone  fills  a  folio  containing  about  1500  pages  of  small  print  in 
double  columns,  and  includes,  inter  alia,  358  articles  on  the 
nature  of  Angels. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  EDUCATION  51 

were  we  to  omit  from  among  such  causes  the  pioneer- 
ing work  of  her  Schoolmen  in  the  emancipation  of 
reason. 

In  the  sixth  century  of  our  era  the  secular  schools 
of  the  Empire  were  swept  away  by  the  torrent  of 
barbarism.  The  Church,  the  one  institution  which  was 
left  standing,  lost  no  time  in  endeavouring  to  replace 
them.  She  set  up  cathedral  schools  in  which  to  train 
her  priests,  and  conventual  schools  in  which  to  train  her 
monks.  During  the  earlier  centuries,  the  real  "dark 
ages  "  of  medievalism,  there  continued  to  reign  over  the 
mind  of  Western  Europe  an  all  but  unbroken  night.  At 
length  civilisation  began  to  feel  less  insecure,  and  the 
intellectual  sky  to  clear  and  brighten.  Through  the 
agency  of  the  Crusades,  and  through  the  influence  of 
commerce,  the  culture  of  the  East  came  to  be  revealed 
to  the  ignorance  of  the  West.  A  desire  arose  to  enlarge 
the  scope  of  education,  and  to  revise  its  method. 
Schools  sprang  up  in  Italy,  France,  and  England,  and 
served  Christendom  as  local  centres  of  instruction. 

By  slow  degrees  the  cathedral  schools  developed 
into  the  medieval  universities.  Notwithstanding  their 
invasion  by  the  friars,  these  places  of  learning  continued 
from  the  first  to  be  more  intimately  allied  with  the 
seculars  and  the  Kings  than  with  the  regulars  and  the 
Pope.  A  medieval  university,  it  should  be  clearly  under- 
stood, was  not  a  collection  of  colleges.*      It  was  the 

*  The  term  "  universitas^  in  medieval  Latin,  means  an 
aggregate  not  of  buildings  but  of  persons  ;  whether  of  teachers, 
or  of  scholars,  or  of  both.  Probably  the  nearest  equivalent  to  our 
"University"  would  be  the  expression  '■'' Studiwn generah." 


52  ■  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

outward  and  visible  form  in  which  the  Middle  Ages 
embodied  their  ideal  of  knowledge.  We  may  describe 
it  broadly  as  a  guild  of  teachers.  The  name  and  fame 
of  the  most  renowned  among  these  teachers  attracted 
students  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  birds  of  passage  who 
migrated  freely  from  one  university  to  another,  wherever 
some  favourite  professor  might  chance  at  the  time  to 
be  delivering  his  lectures.  Such,  in  their  original  char- 
acter, were  the  universities  of  Paris  and  of  Oxford, 
known  respectively  as  the  first  and  the  second  "  schools 
of  the  Church." 

These  guilds  of  widely  scattered  lecturers  were 
spoken  of  collectively  as  "  The  Schoolmen,"  or 
"  Scholastics."  Through  them  it  was  that  the  type  of 
education  underwent  a  change.  It  had  been  literary. 
It  became  philosophical ;  a  strange  mixture  of  Greek 
logic  with  the  Christian  Scriptures.  Its  professors 
comprised  representatives  of  all  the  leading  nations. 
Abelard  was  from  France,  Aquinas  from  Italy,  Albert 
the  Great  from  Germany,  Ockham  from  England. 

If  the  question  is  asked  why  the  teaching  of  the 
Schoolmen  was  so  much  restricted  to  theology,  and 
why  it  forced  theology  into  a  dialectical  mould,  the 
answer  is,  that  in  the  first  place  it  was  in  the  field  of 
theology  alone  that  sufficient  material  was  to  be  found, 
and  secondly,  that  the  Western  mind  had  recently  been 
thrown  into  a  ferment  of  excitement  by  the  new  wine 
of  the  Aristotelian  logic.  Inductive  Science  was  in  its 
cradle.  History  was  not  yet  born.  Literature  and 
Moral  Philosophy  were  dead  and  forgotten.  Arith- 
metic and  Astronomy  found  themselves  chiefly  occupied 


GROWING  INFLUENCE  OF  ARISTOTLE  53 

with  the  calendar  of  the  Church  just  as  Music  was 
occupied  with  her  plain  song. 

The  influence  of  the  great  Greek  philosopher,  "  the 
master,"  as  Dante  calls  him,  "  of  those  that  know,"  had 
been  growing,  at  the  expense  of  Plato,  since  almost  the 
beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  originated  in  the 
survival  of  one  small  fragment  of  his  various  treatises  on 
Logic.  This  waif  and  stray  was  an  introduction,  by  a 
commentator  called  Porphyry,  to  the  first  of  the  six 
disquisitions  which  make  up  Aristotle's  "  Organon"  or 
"  instrument "  of  Dialectic.  The  disquisition  in  question 
was  known  as  "  The  Categories"  or,  in  other  words,  the 
various  aspects  under  which  we  may  regard  anything 
about  which  we  may  be  thinking.  This  brief  treatise 
(together  with  a  further  one  which  deals  with  language 
as  the  interpreter  of  thought,  and  is  known  as  "  The 
Interpretation  "),  was  studied,  in  a  Latin  translation,  by 
churchmen  and  friars  in  order  to  train  their  faculties 
to  argue  logically  on  behalf  of  their  religion.  To  this 
slender  outfit  a  vast  addition  was  made  during  the 
twelfth  century  by  the  famous  commentaries  of 
Averroes.  A  great  influx  of  Aristotelian  lore  gradu- 
ally found  its  way  from  the  Arabs  of  Cordova 
through  the  Jews  of  Spain  into  the  Christian  schools, 
and  Aristotle  thus  became  the  schoolmaster  of  the 
Schoolmen. 

In  this  philosopher's  "  Organon," — translated  out  of 
the  original  into  Arabic,  and  out  of  Arabic  into  Latin — 
and  in  their  own  Latin  Vulgate,  the  medieval  doctors 
conceived  that  they  had  two  Bibles  of  equal  inspiration. 
If  the  Scriptures  were  a  religious  revelation,  so  was  the 


54  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

Logic  of  Aristotle  a  logical  revelation.  What  was 
wanted  was  to  co-relate  and  to  exhibit  the  truths  of  the 
one  under  the  logical  forms  of  the  other.  To  an  extra- 
ordinary degree  the  Schoolmen  became  the  slaves  of 
the  logic  of  which  they  prided  themselves  on  being 
masters.  The  world  of  medievalism  was  almost  wholly 
occupied  with  endless  arguments  about  words,  and 
terms,  and  propositions.  The  scientific  observation  of 
nature  was  reserved  for  a  later  world.  This  zeal  of 
Oxford  students  for  logical  study  is  well  described  in 
Chaucer's  Prologue — 

"  A  clerk  there  was  of  Oxenford  also 
That  unto  logic  hadde  longe  i-go  : 
For  he  hadde  gotten  him  no  benefice, 
Ne  was  so  worldly  for  to  have  office. 
For  him  was  lever  have  at  his  beddes  hed 
Twenty  bookes,  clad  in  black  or  red, 
Of  Aristotle  and  his  philosophie, 
Than  robes  riche,  or  fidele,  or  sautrie." 

There  resulted  a  period  in  the  mental  training  of 
mankind  to  which  no  historical  parallel  can  be  found. 
The  ceaseless  and  irrepressible  activity  of  the  human 
spirit,  whose  deepest  problems,  however  they  may 
change  their  form,  remain  in  substance  much  the  same 
from  age  to  age,  was  forced  to  exercise  itself  within  the 
confines  of  a  theological  cage,  and  to  find  utterance 
through  the  all-powerful  ecclesiastical  terminology  of  the 
time.  It  gave  birth  to  what  may  be  described  as  a  kind 
of  casuistry  of  the  intellect.  For  just  as  with  the 
Casuists  the  broad  principle  of  duty  disappears  in  a 
tangle  of  more  or  less  sophistical  rules  for  evading  it,  so 
with  the  Schoolmen  the  broad  principles  of  religion  and 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  DOGMA  55 

reason  are  lost  in  an  infinite  series  of  disputations  for 
which  nothing  is  too  sacred  and  nothing  too  minute. 
Thought  made  no  pretence  to  any  independence,  or  to 
any  originaHty.  It  did  not  seek  truth,  but  assumed  it 
as  something  given  already  from  without.  Truth,  for 
these  subtle  disputants,  was  simply  what  the  Church  had 
defined  to  be  such.  Given  this  body  of  traditional 
truths,  the  aim  was  to  make  clear  and  logically  self- 
consistent  what  was  '^  ex  hypothesV  beyond  question, 
to  utilise  the  store  for  daily  needs,  and  to  adapt  the 
dogmatic  deliverances  of  the  past  to  the  present.  A 
borrowed  subject-matter  was  to  be  worked  up  by  the 
assistance  of  a  borrowed  method.  The  matter  was 
Dogma,  brought  together  indifferently  from  the  Latin 
Fathers,  from  lifeless  biblical  texts,  from  papal  decretals, 
from  conciliar  canons.  The  method  was  the  method 
of  Aristotle's  syllogistic  logic,  with  its  native  formulae 
stiffened  out  of  all  their  original  elasticity  and  flexi- 
bility by  transplantation  into  a  wholly  alien  soil. 

Under  the  guise  of  defending  the  authority  of  faith, 
the  Schoolmen  unconsciously  brought  about  the  gradual 
emancipation  of  reason,  and  the  historical  position 
which  they  thus  occupy  is  that  of  pioneers  in  a  move- 
ment which  may  be  broadly  described  as  issuing  on  its 
intellectual  side  in  the  Renaissance,  and  on  its  religious 
side  in  the  Reformation. 

Theirs  is  a  system  of  ecclesiastical  education,  which, 
bridging  over  the  centuries  that  intervene  between  the 
decay  and  the  revival  of  letters,  may,  with  equal  pro- 
priety, be  described  either  as  a  theological  philosophy, 
or  as  a  philosophised  theology.     It  belongs  in  part  to 


56  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

reason,  and  in  part  to  faith  ;  to  the  secular  world  of 
sublunary  interests  it  can  hardly  claim  to  belong  at 
all.  It  begins,  with  Anselm,  in  the  subordination  of 
reason  to  faith.  It  goes  on,  in  Aquinas,  to  a  harmoni- 
ous understanding  between  the  two.  It  ends,  with 
the  new  Nominalists,  like  Ockham,  and  Marsiglio  of 
Padua,  in  the  temporary  estrangement  of  the  one  from 
the  other. 

As  has  been  said  above.  Scholasticism  marks  a 
period  which  is  unique  in  history.  For  it  is  neither  an 
age  of  intuition  and  of  creative  imagination,  such  as  that 
to  which  we  are  introduced  in  Homer,  nor  is  it  an  age 
of  criticism  and  reflection,  such  as  we  find  mirrored  in 
the  Platonic  dialogues.  We  cannot  call  it  a  philosophy, 
for  it  makes  no  attempt  to  dig  down  to  the  founda- 
tions of  intellectual  life,  but  tacitly  assumes  beforehand 
the  authoritative  truth  of  the  propositions  which  make 
up  its  premises.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  certainly 
not  a  religion.  For  by  religion  we  must  at  the  least 
mean  something  which  has  life  and  soul ;  something 
that  has  power  to  touch  the  emotions,  to  kindle  the 
imagination,  arid  to  mould  the  will.  Scholasticism 
can  only  be  described  as  a  cold,  dead  system  of  barren 
argumentation,  from  which  every  trace  of  sensibility, 
and  tenderness,  and  aspiration,  has  been  crushed  out 
by  the  relentless  despotism  of  logical  forms.  We  do 
not  find  it  characterised  by  any  alertness  of  scientific 
curiosity,  while  to  the  old  classical  sense  of  the  worth 
and  dignity  of  human  things  it  is  quite  a  stranger. 
As  we  pass  within  its  portals,  this  present  life  appears 
as   cast   into   deep   shadow   by   the   fierce  light  of  its 


REASON  THE  HANDMAID  OF  FAITH  57 

Final  Cause,  the  life  to  come.  The  world  of  the  living 
attracts  but  an  inferior  and  subordinate  interest.  It 
is  but  the  insignificant  ante-room  to  the  greater  world 
of  the  dead. 

To  sum  up  the  substance  of  the  matter  in  a  few 
sentences,  we  may  picture  to  ourselves,  as  forming  the 
material  with  which  Scholasticism  was  busy,  a  tangled 
mass  of  Dogma,  or,  in  other  words,  of  authoritative 
utterances  originally  adapted  to  meet  this  or  that 
question  or  difficulty,  when  and  where  it  chanced  to 
arise.  The  all-absorbing  problem  of  the  Schoolmen 
is  so  to  manipulate,  to  digest,  and  to  codify  these  dis- 
jointed deliverances  as  to  exhibit  the  inherent  reason- 
ableness of  the  body  of  doctrine  held  traditionally  by 
the  Church. 

Anselm's  saying,  "  Credo  ut  intelligam,"  "  I  believe 
in  order  that  I  may  understand,"  may  be  taken  as 
the  representative  motto  of  this  logic-ridden  theology. 
Reason,  under  this  conception  of  its  functions,  is  neither 
something  independent  of  faith,  nor  is  it  recognised  as 
a  formative  element  of  the  nature  which  makes  man 
human.  It  is  merely  the  handmaid  of  faith,  working 
the  logical  machinery  in  the  interests  of  its  employer. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that,  in  their 
treatment  of  the  objects  of  faith  as  fit  and  proper 
objects  for  scientific  inquiry  ; — in  their  hypothesis,  in 
other  words,  that  religion  is  at  bottom  rational  in  its 
nature, — the  Schoolmen  were  destined  to  prove  power- 
ful stimulators  of  the  spirit  of  investigation  and 
criticism. 

But  the  immediate  and  direct  result  of  their  labours 


58  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

was  that  Christian  doctrine  and  Greek  philosophy  were 
both  equally  degraded.  The  deformation  of  theology 
was  thus  made  the  antecedent  condition  of  its  reforma- 
tion. In  the  early  days  of  the  faith  religion  was  rather 
a  life  of  spiritual  intuition  than  a  carefully  articulated 
creed.  The  truth  of  the  doctrine  had  been  safeguarded 
by  the  inner  witness  of  the  Christian  consciousness. 
For,  where  "  love  is  an  unerring  light,  and  joy  its  own 
security,"  a  faithful  life  rises  in  its  moral  enthusiasm 
far  above  all  logical  difficulties.  But  this  safeguard 
had  now  long  been  lost.  The  cold  intellectual  processes 
of  Scholasticism  lay  on  the  human  spirit  like  a  frost. 
Its  system  resembled  a  passionless  brain  without  a 
heart.  It  manipulated  the  dead  letter  of  authority 
with  such  remorseless  ingenuity,  with  such  an  entire 
absence  of  any  misgiving,  any  reverence  or  veneration, 
that,  in  their  recoil  from  it,  the  more  sensitive  minds 
were  driven  into  Mysticism,  there  perchance  to  dis- 
cover, through  love,  the  secrets  which  seemed  to  be 
sealed  to  knowledge. 

And,  if  there  were  some  minds  which  were  impelled 
towards  Mysticism,  there  were  others  which  moved 
rapidly  in  the  direction  of  Scepticism.  The  inherited 
beliefs  of  the  Church  became  one  by  one  so  honey- 
combed by  the  subtle  working  of  the  speculative  reck- 
lessness to  which  they  had  been  subjected  by  the 
Nominalists,  that  the  old  theological  building  was 
rendered  all  but  hopelessly  uninhabitable.  Such  was 
the  result,  though  it  was  very  far  from  having  been 
the  aim,  of  the  Scholastic  Philosophy.  The  logical 
difficulties   which  it  raised  continued   to  live  on  long 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  TWO  TRUTHS  59 

after  their  suggested  dialectical  solutions  had  been  for- 
gotten, and  the  working  alliance  of  religion  and  logic 
thus  brought  about  its  own  dissolution.  Unable  any- 
longer  to  reconcile  reason  and  dogma,  men  fell  back 
upon  the  fatal  principle  of  the  "  two  truths,"  namely, 
that  what  was  true  dogmatically  might  at  the  same 
time  not  be  true  rationally.  Speculative  reason, 
desiring  to  assert  its  independence  of  authority,  broke 
away  from  theology,  and  took  refuge  in  modern 
philosophy  and  modern  science.  Faith,  ill  at  ease 
with  the  form  on  which  religion  was  presented  to  it, 
sought  a  less  asphyxiating  atmosphere  in  the  Reforma- 
tion. With  the  revival  of  Nominalism  in  William  of 
Ockham,  Scholasticism  however  took  a  new  departure. 
Stepping  out  of  the  narrow  sphere  of  the  study  of 
"  Universals,"  it  began  to  interest  itself  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical and  political  problems  of  the  work-a-day  world, 
and  to  breathe  an  ampler  air.  But  meanwhile  the 
Schoolmen  had  not  laboured  in  vain.  Almost  in  spite 
of  themselves  they  had  achieved  an  educational  work 
which  has  too  often  been  left  unappreciated.  Although 
their  labours,  at  the  time,  succeeded  only  in  unspiritual- 
ising  the  Church  without  spiritualising  the  world,  yet 
at  least  they  awakened  the  world  out  of  its  long  sleep, 
and  stimulated  the  new  desire  for  scientific  inquiry  and 
knowledge.  If  they  failed  to  enlarge  the  boundaries 
of  reason  they  gave  a  keener  edge  to  its  instruments. 
It  was  thus  that  from  Scholasticism,  as  from  a  fountain- 
head,  sprang  both  the  Protestantism  of  religion  and  the 
Protestantism  of  thought,  and  we  may  apply  to  its 
historical  significance   the    description  which    Horace 


6o  THE  BIBLE  AND  SCHOLASTICISM 

has  left  us  of  his  own  relation  to  the  art  of  poetical 
composition : — 

"  Fungar  vice  cotis,  acutum 
Reddere  quae  ferrum  valet,  exsors  ipsa  secandi." 

Ars  Poetica,  304-5. 

"  Mine  is  the  whetstone's  lot,  I  sharpen,  but 
There  my  part  ends,  'tis  not  for  me  to  cut." 


JOHN  WYCLIFFE 


"  Master  John  Wycliffe  was  considered  by  many  to  be  the  most 
holy  of  all  the  men  in  his  age.  He  was  of  emaciated  frame,  spare, 
and  well-nigh  destitute  of  strength.  He  was  absolutely  blameless 
in  his  conduct.  Wherefore  very  many  of  the  chief  men  of  this 
kingdom  who  frequently  held  counsel  with  him,  were  devotedly 
attached  to  him,  and  kept  a  record  of  what  he  said,  and  guided 
themselves  after  his  manner  of  life." 

{ly.  Thorpe^  1410  A.D.,  quoted  by  Bale.) 

"  In  philosophy,  Wycliffe  came  to  be  reckoned  inferior  to  none 
of  his  time,  and  incomparable  in  the  performance  of  School 
exercises,  a  man  of  profound  wit,  and  very  strong  in  disputations, 
and  who  was  by  the  common  sort  of  divines  esteemed  little  less 
than  a  god." 

{Knighton.) 

"  The  devil's  instrument,  Church's  enemy,  people's  confusion, 
heretic's  idol,  hypocrite's  mirror,  schism's  broacher,  hatred's  sower, 
lies'  forger,  flatteries'  sink,  who,  stricken  by  the  horrible  judgment 
of  God,  breathed  forth  his  soul  to  the  dark  mansion  of  the  black 
devil." 

{Epitaph,  written  at  St  Albatis^ 

"This  Master  John  Wycliffe  translated  into  the  Anglic,  not 
Angelic  tongue,  the  Gospel.  Whence  it  is  made  vulgar  by  him, 
and  more  open  to  the  reading  of  lay  men  and  women,  than  it  usually 
is  to  the  knowledge  of  lettered  and  intelligent  clergy,  and  thus  the 
pearl  is  cast  abroad  and  trodden  under  feet  of  swine.  The  jewel  of 
the  Church  is  turned  into  the  common  sport  of  the  people." 

{Knighton^ 


CHAPTER  IV 

JOHN   WYCLIFFE   AND   THE   BIBLES  OF   THE 
FOURTEENTH   CENTURY 

The  preliminary  survey  to  which  the  preceding 
chapters  have  been  devoted  has  now  brought  us 
within  sight  of  a  border  period  of  great  interest  and 
importance  in  the  religious  history  of  England.  It 
is  a  period  in  which  the  best  known  actor  is  one  of 
the  most  illustrious  of  the  sons  of  Oxford,  a  man  whose 
life  covers  the  declining  years  of  the  old  scholastic 
methods  and  the  opening  out  of  a  new  intellectual 
movement,  and  who  has  accordingly  been  appro- 
priately described  as  "the  last  of  the  Schoolmen  and 
the  first  of  the  Reformers,"  John  Wycliffe. 

Later  on  in  this  chapter  it  is  proposed  to  give 
some  account  of  the  two  versions  of  that  earliest 
English  Bible  which  for  some  five  hundred  years  has 
been  linked  with  Wycliffe's  name.  It  will  be  sufficient 
at  present  to  note  that  the  Bible  in  question  is  a 
translation  of  a  translation,  namely  of  the  Latin 
Vulgate,  and  that  the  dialect  in  which  it  is  written 
and  the  mode  of  spelling  which  it  employs,  are  so 
far  removed  from  the  literary  language   and  spelling 


64  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

of  the  Bible  now  in  use  as  to  place  it  in  a  category 
of  its  own,  and,  from  the  point  of  view  of  an  English 
reader,  to  render  our  interest  in  it  chiefly  of  an 
archaic  and  philological  character. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  make  a  brief  selection,  the 
following  among  its  phrases  remain  embedded  in  our 
Authorised  Version,  and  appear  also,  with  but  one 
exception,  in  the  Revised  Version.  Such  renderings  as 
"  compass  sea  and  land,"  "  first  fruits,"  "  strait  gate," 
"  make  whole,"  "  damsel,"  "  peradventure,"  "  son  of  per- 
dition," "  savourest  not  the  things  of  God,"  "  enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord,"  are  as  familiar  to  us  as  any- 
thing in  our  Bible. 

But  though  much  of  the  language  of  his  translation 
had  become  obsolete  even  before  the  Reformation, 
Wycliffe  himself  is  so  prominent  a  figure  in  the 
national  history  that  we  need  offer  no  excuse  for 
endeavouring  to  recall  the  likeness  of  a  man,  who, 
whether  we  look  to  the  uniqueness  of  his  position 
and  work,  to  his  many-sided  life  and  character,  or  to 
the  range  and  versatility  of  his  mind,  must  always 
rank  among  the  most  striking  personalities  in  the 
England  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

The  details  of  his  life  may  be  left  to  his  bio- 
graphers. It  will  be  enough  for  the  reader  of  these 
pages  if  he  can  trace  the  lines  along  which  the  school- 
man developed  into  the  translator,  and  can  under- 
stand why  and  how  it  was  that,  although  Wycliffe 
lived  and  died  a  beneficed  clergyman,  he  should  yet 
have  come  to  be  regarded  by  the  hierarchy  with  such 
relentless  animosity  that  his  very  bones  were  exhumed 


THE  TWO-SIDEDNESS  OF  WYCLIFFE  65 

and  burnt,  and  his  ashes  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of 
heaven. 

Like  the  fourteenth  century  itself,  Wycliffe  stands 
half  in  and  half  out  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  repre- 
sents a  time  of  transition  from  the  old  order  to  the 
new.  In  his  ideas  themselves  he  is  for  the  most  part  in 
advance  of  his  age,  but  in  the  way  in  which  he  presents 
and  clothes,  and  defends  them,  he  belongs  unmistakably 
to  Medievalism,  And  the  same  double  character  is 
illustrated  by  his  mastery  of  English  as  well  as  of  Latin, 
and  by  the  ease  and  readiness  with  which,  at  the  end  of 
his  career,  he  passes  from  the  academic  disputant  into 
the  popular  pamphleteer. 

As  long  as  he  was  addressing  the  learned  world 
as  a  university  teacher  he  addressed  it  in  its  own 
ecclesiastical  Latin.  No  sooner,  however,  had  he  given 
up  all  hope  of  the  reformation  of  the  Church  from 
within  ;  no  sooner  had  he  turned  from  Oxford  and 
London  to  make  his  memorable  appeal  to  the  nation 
at  large  by  his  pamphlets  and  tracts,  by  his  roving 
preachers,  and  by  the  newly  translated  Bible  with  which 
he  had  supplied  them,  than  we  find  him  subordinating 
his  academic  Latin  to  the  vernacular,  and  astonishing 
us  by  his  transformation  into  a  master-builder,  in  his 
own  dialect  and  style,  of  English  prose. 

And  if  Wycliffe  represents  a  new  movement  in  our 
literature,  so  too  does  he  represent  a  new  departure  in 
our  religious  history.  For  the  rise  of  Lollardy,  in  so  far 
as  it  was  a  religious  movement,  marks  the  earliest 
break  in  the  dogmatic  continuity  of  Latin  Christianity 
in  England.     Ever   since  the  coming  of  the   Roman 


66  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

and  Irish  missionaries  the  orthodoxy  of  the  EngHsh 
Church  had  been  preserved  unblemished ;  but,  if 
WycHfife  is  to  be  judged  by  the  standard  of  medieval 
faith,  and  not  by  his  own  standard  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  of  the  early  Church,  it  can  hardly  be  disputed 
that  our  first  reformer  was  also  our  first  conspicuous 
heretic. 

In  judging  of  Wycliffe's  influence  among  his 
contemporaries  it  is  of  the  first  importance  to  bear  in 
mind  the  following  consideration.  It  was  his  name  and 
fame  as  a  Schoolman  that  gave  such  importance  to  his 
religious  opinions.  But  for  the  long  and  close  alliance 
between  the  schools  and  the  Church,  and  the  high 
esteem  in  which  the  scholastic  learning  of  the  day 
was  held,  coupled  as  this  was  with  his  own  unrivalled 
position  among  the  "  Doctors "  of  Oxford,  he  could 
never  have  become  such  a  power  as  a  spiritual  teacher. 
Take  away  from  him  his  university  prestige,  and 
he  would  soon  have  been  sneered  down  into  insigni- 
ficance as  a  mere  "Biblicist,"  and  crushed  under  the 
dead   weight   of  ecclesiastical   obscurantism. 

"  Scholasticism,"  writes  Mr  Rashdall,*  "  amid  all  differences 
between  conflicting  schools,  had  been  unimpeachably  loyal  to  the 
Church  system  and  the  theological  premises  on  which  it  was 
based.  The  importance  of  the  Wycliffite  movement  consisted  in 
this,  that,  now  for  the  first  time,  the  Established  Church  principles 
were  assailed,  not  by  some  obscure  fanatic,  not  by  some  mere 
revivalist,  but  by  a  great  scholastic  doctor  in  the  '  second  school 
of  the  Church.' "t 

Not  only,  however,  was  it  on  the  side  of  Scholasti- 

♦  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  II.,  ii.,  539. 
t  Viz.,  Oxford. 


TRANSITION  FROM  MEDIEVALISM  67 

cism,  but  on  every  side,  that  the  venerable  fabric  of 
Medievalism  was  being  undermined.  One  impor- 
tant effect  of  the  Crusades  had  been  to  bring  the 
barbarism  of  the  West  into  close  contact  with  the 
science  and  culture  of  the  East,  and  all  through  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  the  intellectual  move- 
ment which  had  thence  received  its  impetus  had  been 
constantly  expanding.  It  resulted  that  an  eager  desire 
for  knowledge  was  attracting  students  in  tens  of 
thousands  to  those  newly-founded  and  central  Uni- 
versities, which,  as  the  homes  of  education,  were  taking 
the  place  of  the  rival  monasteries  and  cathedrals  with 
their  scattered  and  antiquated  local  schools. 

This  widespread  aspiration  towards  a  fuller  and 
freer  life  was  slowly  sapping  the  foundations  of 
privilege.  New  professions  were  beginning  to  open 
up  in  medicine,  law,  and  science.  Chivalry  and 
feudalism  were  already  in  their  decline.  The  Empire 
had  shrunk  into  a  mere  shadow  of  its  former  splendour. 
Across  the  path  of  the  Papacy  were  planted  the 
nationalities  of  France  and  England,  flushed  with  a 
newborn  sense  of  political  individuality  and  independ- 
ence. 

And  if  the  intellect  of  the  Western  world  had  at  last 
awakened  out  of  sleep,  so  too  had  its  conscience.  The 
lay  mind  was  everywhere  in  moral  revolt,  not  yet  in- 
deed against  the  doctrinal  creed  of  the  Church,  but 
against  her  worldliness  and  immorality,  her  preten- 
tiousness, her  greed  of  wealth,  and  her  arrogance. 
And  while  this  omnipotent  Church  was  daily  grow- 
ing   richer    and     more    indolent,    the    treasuries     of 


68  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

Europe,  whether  national  or  papal,  continued  subject 
to  a  severe  and  constant  strain.  To  meet  the  pres- 
sure of  financial  exigencies  caused  by  the  prodigality 
and  pageantry  of  courts  and  kings ;  by  the  burdens 
of  incessant  war ;  by  the  ravages  of  plague,  and 
pestilence,  and  famine,  all  classes  of  the  community 
were  being  impartially  plundered.  A  spirit  of  rest- 
lessness and  discontent  was  abroad,  and  rival  claimants 
were  competing  far  and  wide  for  intellectual  and  social 
allegiance :  Latin  Christianity  and  Teutonic ;  tradition 
and  scripture ;  canonists  and  legists  ;  realists  and  nomin- 
alists ;  authority  and  conscience ;  capital  and  labour. 

But,  for  our  present  purpose,  it  is  less  with  the 
general  than  with  the  ecclesiastical  aspect  of  the 
century  that  we  have  to  do.  As  the  spiritual  umpire 
and  moderator  among  the  kingdoms  of  the  West,  the 
medieval  Papacy  had  held  a  position  of  unequalled 
moral  dignity  and  grandeur.  She  had  rendered 
invaluable  service,  during  the  political  minority  of 
Europe,  as  the  guardian  and  protector  of  the  weak 
against  the  strong,  and  of  the  claims  of  equal  justice 
against  the  lawlessness  of  feudalism.  She  had  given 
unity  to  the  warring  elements  of  Teutonism,  and  had 
evolved  order  out  of  chaos.  She  had  represented  the 
principle  of  right  against  might,  and  of  freedom  against 
oppression.  Lofty  in  conception  and  pure  in  purpose, 
men  saw  in  her  an  institution  which  might  well  impress 
itself  on  their  imagination  as  something  whose  origin 
was  from  heaven. 

It  became  quite  another  matter,  however,  when  the 
Popes  stepped  down  into  the  political  arena,  and  fought 


MORAL  DECLINE  OF  THE  PAPACY  69 

there  for  mere  temporal  sovereignty.  After  a  pro- 
tracted and  financially  exhausting  struggle,  the  Papacy 
had  proved  eventually  successful  in  its  duel  with  the 
Empire,  and  the  great  house  of  the  Hohenstaufen  was 
humbled  at  last  to  the  dust.  But  the  Empire  and  the 
Papacy  had  for  many  centuries  been  most  intimately 
associated  in  the  medieval  mind.  In  a  very  real  sense 
they  were  twin  powers,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  one 
shook  the  prestige  of  the  other  to  its  foundations.  So 
long  as  the  Empire  remained  a  reality  the  idea  of  secular 
centralisation  reigned  supreme.  The  fall  of  the  Hohen- 
staufen opened  the  way  for  the  new  idea  of  nationality. 
With  material  success,  too,  there  had  come  a  decline  in 
moral  authority,  and  behind  the  awful  mask  of  St  Peter 
men  had  learnt  to  detect  the  features  of  the  ordinary 
political  adventurer. 

Wycli  fife's  century,  it  will  be  remembered,  opens 
with  the  momentous  quarrel  between  Boniface  VIII., 
with  whom  ecclesiastical  arrogance  seems  to  be  touch- 
ing its  meridian,  and  Philip  IV.  of  France.  And  from 
this  quarrel,  with  its  sequels  of  the  "  Babylonian 
Captivity"  at  Avignon,  and  the  great  Schism  of  1378, 
may  be  dated  the  downfall  of  the  Papacy  as  the  moral 
tribunal  of  Christendom  and  the  spiritual  Delphi  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  claim  to  decide  issues  of  right  and 
wrong  by  a  divinely  delegated  authority  could  not 
long  continue  to  be  successfully  maintained  by  Popes 
whom  men  saw  abdicating  the  august  independence  of 
the  Apostolic  See  and  stooping  to  enrich  themselves  by 
a  shameless  traffic  in  holy  things.  While  holding  their 
court  in  the  eternal  city,  the  Popes  had  been  clothed 


70  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

in  the  universality  which  was  inseparable  from  the  very 
idea  of  Rome.  But  at  Avignon  this  attribute  of  uni- 
versality necessarily  vanished  away.  An  Avignese 
Pope  was  practically  a  French  Pope,  and  the  tacit 
renunciation  by  the  Papacy  of  its  autonomy  meant 
nothing  less  than  its  spiritual  degradation.  It  was  St 
Peter  who  still  spoke,  but  his  words  were  the  words  of 
the  King  of  France. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  flagrant  iniquities  of  the 
palace  at  Avignon,  it  was  with  a  feeling  akin  to  disgust 
that  men  saw  the  representatives  of  Hildebrand  and 
of  Innocent  deserting  the  religious  capital  of  Chris- 
tendom and  degrading  themselves  into  the  position 
of  political  puppets.  Nor  is  the  historical  drama 
of  the  time  wanting  in  an  element  of  tragedy.  For 
nothing  surely  could  be  more  tragic  than  the  catas- 
trophe through  which  the  imposing  splendour  and 
pomp  of  the  Papal  Jubilee  of  A.D.  1300,  under  Boniface 
VIII.,  came  to  be  succeeded  within  three  short  years  by 
the  ignominy  of  that  Pontiff's  sudden  arrest  and  down- 
fall. Rarely,  indeed,  has  the  irony  of  history  found  a 
more  striking  illustration  than  in  those  two  companion 
pictures  of  the  suppliant  Emperor  at  Canossa,  and  of 
the  captive  Pope  at  Anagni. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  Papacy  was  abating 
nothing  of  the  audaciousness  of  her  claims.  The  aban- 
donment of  the  sacred  shrines  of  St  Peter  and  St  Paul 
had  involved  a  most  serious  shrinkage  of  revenue,  but 
the  expenditure  of  a  corrupt  and  profligate  court  still 
went  on  unchecked,  and  was  in  fact  rather  increased 
than  curtailed. ' 


WYCLI FEE'S  ANTAGONISM  TO  ROME  71 

It  had  become  necessary,  therefore,  in  order  to  meet 
the  growing  indebtedness  of  Avignon,  that  her  wide- 
spread army  of  tax-collecting  harpies  should  be  stimu- 
lated into  abnormal  activity.  Small  wonder  that  the 
Papacy,  as  distinct  from  the  Church  of  which  it  was 
the  head,  should  have  been  universally  detested  as  the 
ecclesiastical  vampire  of  the  West,  and  not  least  so  in 
our  own  island,  which  for  generations  had  been,  and 
which  still  remained,  the  favourite  among  the  milch-cows 
of  Rome. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  administrative  aggressions, 
extortions,  and  encroachments,  which  by  a  natural 
sequence  resulted  from  the  financial  embarrassment  of 
the  Avignese  Popes,  are  seen,  when  taken  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  moral  degradation  by  which  they  were 
accompanied,  to  form  a  dramatic  background  against 
which  the  ever-increasing  hostility  of  Rome's  great 
English  opponent  is  thrown  into  historical  relief  And 
hence,  too,  it  is  that  the  readiest  key  to  Wyclifife's  career 
is  to  be  found  in  the  conviction, — a  conviction  which 
grew  deeper  as  life  went  on, — that  the  Papal  claims 
were  incompatible  with  what  he  felt  to  be  the  moral 
truth  of  things,  incompatible  with  his  conscience,  with 
his  instinct  of  patriotism,  and  finally,  with  the  para- 
mount authority  of  the  inspired  Book  which  was  his 
spiritual  Great  Charter. 

The  traditional  accounts  of  Wycliffe  agree  in  repre- 
senting him  as  somewhat  frail  in  appearance  and  con- 
stitutionally of  indifferent  health.  He  would  seem  also 
to  have  been  wanting  in  that  quality  of  passionate  en- 
thusiasm which  goes  to  make  the  great  religious  leader. 


72  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

The  secret  springs  of  the  influence  which  he  exercised 
over  his  fellows  lay,  as  they  lay  with  Newman,  in 
the  purity,  the  unworldliness,  and  the  spirituality  of  his 
character ;  in  a  certain  personal  magnetism  and  power 
of  mentally  impressing  those  with  whom  he  was  thrown  ; 
in  his  intensity  of  will  and  purpose ;  in  the  sincerity  and 
earnestness  that  was  manifest  in  all  that  he  said  and 
did  ;  in  his  moral  courage  ;  and  last,  not  least,  in  the 
high  repute  in  which  he  stood  as  the  ablest  living 
representative  in  England  of  the  learning  and  logical 
acuteness  of  the  schools, 

Wycliffe's  career  divides   itself  with   sufficient   dis- 
tinctness into  three  more  or  less  inter-dependent  stages. 
The  first  of  these  stages  comprises  his  thirty  years 
or  so  of  training  and  development  as  a  schoolman  at 
Oxford  (1336- 1 366). 

The  second  stage  (i 366-1 378)  embraces  the  poli- 
tical period  of  his  life,  and  his  activity  both  in 
publicly  opposing  the  temporal  claims  of  the  Papacy, 
and  in  declaiming  as  well  against  the  exemption  of 
ecclesiastical  persons  from  lay  control  as  against  the 
principle  of  an  endowed  Church. 

The  third  and  last  stage  of  his  life  (1378- 13  84) 
dates  from  the  crisis  known  as  the  Papal  Schism ;  and 
it  is  under  the  influence  of  the  shock  which  he  received 
from  the  spectacle  of  the  sudden  dislocation  of  Christen- 
dom that  we  shall  find  Wycliffe  declaring  war  against 
Rome  and  her  representatives  in  England,  crossing  the 
ecclesiastical  Rubicon,  and  standing  forward,  isolated 
and  alone,  as  an  open  disbeliever  in  the  central  principles 
of  the  medieval  system  of  religion. 


WYCLIFFE  AND  OXFORD  73 

Born  of  a  good  Yorkshire  stock,  John  Wycliffe 
entered  Oxford  soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  so-called 
"Hundred  Years  War"  with  France.  Of  the  details 
of  his  university  life  little  is  known,  but  he  may 
probably  have  been  a  scholar  of  Balliol.  The  fact  that 
he  belonged  to  the  Northern  "  nation  "  among  the  uni- 
versity students  indicates  that  even  from  the  very  first 
his  sympathies  must  have  been  anti-Papal.  In  due 
course  his  exceptional  talents  and  the  nobility  of  his 
moral  character  received  their  natural  reward.  Whether 
he  was  ever  a  Fellow  of  Merton  is  not  certain,  but  in 
1 36 1  he  is  known  to  have  been  Master  of  Balliol. 

After  a  brief  tenure  he  exchanged  the  Mastership 
for  the  College  living  of  Fillingham,  a  parish  distant 
some  ten  miles  or  so  from  Lincoln,  and  henceforward 
his  time  was  somewhat  unequally  divided  between  the 
duties  of  his  benefice  and  the  intellectual  attractions  of 
Oxford. 

The  lustre  of  the  University  of  Paris,  "the  first 
school  of  the  Church,"  had  of  late  been  somewhat 
obscured,  partly  owing  to  the  long  continuance  of  war, 
and  partly  to  the  overshadowing  influence  of  the  Papal 
Court  at  Avignon.  Thus  the  Oxford  of  Wycliffe's  prime 
had  come  to  occupy  the  most  conspicuous  position  in  the 
whole  of  Europe  as  a  centre  of  liberal  and  independent 
thought.  Even  in  spite  of  the  friars  and  the  plague  it 
was  crowded  with  students,  fermenting  with  intellectual 
activity,  and  convulsed  with  the  ceaseless  quarrels  of 
seculars  and  regulars. 

Though  we  are  not  entitled  to  claim  for  him  a  place 
in    the  first  rank  either  of  metaphysical  or  of  literary 


74  JOHN  WYC.TJEFE 

genius,  WycHffe  was  undoubtedly  the  foremost  figure 
in  his  university,  as  well  as  the  master-spirit  in  the 
ethical  and  religious  revivalism  of  his  age.  It  is  easier 
to  under-estimate  than  to  exaggerate  the  influence 
which  he  exercised  upon  his  contemporaries.  Sur- 
rounded as  we  are  to-day  with  books,  journals,  and 
periodicals  without  number,  it  requires  no  incon- 
siderable effort  to  realise  the  force  and  power  which 
in  bygone  years,  when  no  printing-press  had  been  in- 
vented, when  books  were  few  and  readers  fewer  still, 
belonged  to  the  living  voice  of  eloquence  and  learning. 
And  it  was  just  such  a  living  voice  which  was  embodied 
in  Wycliffe.  It  was  notorious  that,  whether  in  the 
lecture-hall  or  in  the  pulpit,  no  other  Schoolman  could 
hope  to  rival  him,  while  his  wonderful  skill  of  intellectual 
fence  must  have  made  him  a  formidable  foe  even  among 
the  logical  swordsmen  of  the  time. 

Yet,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  it  was  not  either  to 
logic  or  to  philosophy  that  Wycliffe  was  eventually  to 
owe  the  distinguishing  title  by  which  he  has  come  down 
to  posterity.  To  every  eminent  doctor  it  was  the  custom 
of  the  day  to  attach  some  descriptive  blazon  or  surname. 
Duns  Scotus  (to  take  an  example  from  the  philological 
ancestor  of  the  noble  company  of  "  dunces  ")  was  called 
the  "  subtle  " ;  Bradwardine  the  "  profound  "  ;  Ockham 
the  "  invincible."  In  the  case  of  Wycliffe  his  admirers 
must  have  been  hard  put  to  it,  when  in  contact 
with  a  mind  so  richly  gifted,  to  point  to  any  one 
notably  predominant  trait. 

In  a  society  where  the  theologians  of  the  day  were 
all   but    unanimous   in    awarding    precedence    to    the 


THE  EVANGELICAL  DOCTOR  75 

doctrines  of  famous  Schoolmen  basing  themselves 
on  the  Fathers, — whether  to  the  reasoned  opinions, 
(or  so-called  Sentences),  of  Peter  the  Lombard,  or 
to  the  Summa  of  Aquinas, — it  was  WycHfife's  excep- 
tional and  strenuous  vindication  of  the  Scriptures,  as  the 
one  paramount  rule  of  human  life  and  conduct,  which 
seems  to  have  won  for  him  his  surname  of  the 
"  evangelical "  doctor.  That  he  should  bring  to  his 
interpretation  of  the  Vulgate  trains  of  thought  that 
were  scholastic  and  feudal  in  their  colouring  was  only 
natural.  The  remarkable  fact  was,  that,  in  days  when 
Bible-reading  was  not  the  common  practice,  the  lead- 
ing English  thinker  of  his  age  should  have  deemed 
no  pains  too  great  to  make  himself  intimately  familiar 
with  the  moral  teaching  of  a  book  which  the  large 
majority  of  his  fellow  theologians  were  disposed  to  value 
chiefly  as  a  treasure-house  of  dead  dogma. 

Accordingly  it  was  by  the  standard  of  the  Bible  and 
of  the  early  Fathers  that  Wycliffe  persistently  desired 
that  his  orthodoxy  or  his  unorthodoxy  might  be  tried. 
And  not  his  own  alone,  but  the  orthodoxy  even  of  the 
supreme  Pontiff  himself,  and  of  all  the  rulers  of  the 
Church.  The  attitude  therefore  which  he  held  towards 
the  only  organised  religious  body  which  was  then 
in  existence,  was  at  first  neither  that  of  a  sectarian 
nor  of  a  schismatic,  but  that  of  a  moral  reformer. 
His  quarrel,  to  put  the  same  thing  in  other  words,  was 
not  with  the  foundations  of  the  ecclesiastical  edifice  of 
Medievalism,  but  only  with  a  superstructure  which  was 
out  of  keeping  with  the  original  design,  and  which  was, 
moreover,  of  comparatively  recent  date.     Yet,  had  his 


76  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

supporters  in  England  been  less  powerful,  or  had  Rome 
been  more  herself,  it  is  hardly  possible  that  he  would 
have  been  permitted  to  die,  as  he  had  all  along  lived,  in 
unbroken  communion  with  a  Church  which  it  was 
his  first  aim  to  purify  and  to  spiritualise. 

For  it  is  evident  from  his  writings  that  between 
Wycliffe  and  the  mediatorial  system  of  medieval 
Christianity  no  middle  term  of  reconciliation  can  really 
be  found.  Deep  down  at  the  root  of  his  hostility  to 
the  formalism  and  materialism  that  he  saw  every- 
where reflected  in  the  religious  ordinances  of  his  age, 
we  find  his  overmastering  conviction  of  the  individual 
and  personal  responsibility  of  man  to  God.  Religion 
was  for  Wycliffe  something  the  credentials  of  which  were 
to  be  sought  in  the  very  constitution  of  that  spiritual 
principle  whose  life  develops  only  from  within ;  some- 
thing which  refused  to  be  swallowed  up  by  any  secular- 
ising influences ;  something  which  belonged  essentially 
to  the  heart  and  conscience,  and  concerned  itself  only  in 
a  subordinate  degree  with  ancillary  forms  and  symbols. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  the  first  of  the  three  stages 
in  Wycliffe's  life  coincides  in  a  general  way  with  that 
flood-tide  of  patriotic  elation  which  we  find  sweeping 
through  the  central  years  of  the  long  reign  of  Edward 
III.  And  probably  we  shall  not  be  far  from  the  truth  if 
we  picture  him,  at  the  close  of  this  first  stage,  as  on  the 
one  hand  a  schoolman  renowned  for  his  eccentricities  no 
less  than  for  his  mastery  of  logic  ;  and  on  the  other  hand 
as  a  reformer  of  devout  moral  earnestness,  with  a  cast 
of  mind  which,  while  finding  but  comparatively  little 
value  in  mere  externals,  was  in  the  best  sense   deeply 


PERSONALITY  OF  WYCLIFFE  77 

religious.  Pure  in  life  and  lofty  in  character,  a  great 
university  teacher  and  preacher,  an  Augustinian  in  his 
strong  sense  of  the  inherent  frailty  and  sinfulness  of 
human  nature,  and  of  the  irresistible  power  of  divine 
grace,  Wycliffe  held  views  on  the  current  ecclesiastical 
problems  of  his  day  which  were  not  likely  to  be  popular. 
His  temperament  was  intellectual  rather  than  emotional ; 
a  temperament  which  radiated  more  of  dry  light  than 
of  genial  warmth.  He  was  of  grave  and  ascetic  habit ; 
a  bom  fighter,  and  a  man  of  war  even  from  his  youth ; 
an  eager  champion  of  his  country  against  the  foreigner ; 
of  seculars  against  regulars ;  of  the  spiritual  against 
the  worldly  ideal ;  of  a  voluntary  ministry  against  an 
endowed  hierarchy ;  of  the  Christianity  of  the  ante- 
Papal  Church  against  the  Christianity  of  the  later 
Middle  Ages ;  of  the  supremacy  of  Scripture  over 
tradition,  and  of  personal  worth  and  merit  over  the 
claims  of  any  merely  official  dignity.  Vigorous  in  will, 
unflinching  in  courage,  tenacious  in  purpose,  he  would 
nevertheless  appear  to  have  been  lacking  in  constructive 
genius,  and  lacking  also  in  that  magic  power  of  love 
and  sympathy  which  had  inspired  Aidan  and  the 
Celtic  missionaries,  and  which  characterises  great 
leaders  like  St  Francis,  St  Bernard,  and  Savonarola. 
Finally,  Wycliffe  was  an  iconoclastic  reformer  with 
keenly  democratic  instincts,  whose  inmost  soul  was 
stirred  to  its  depth  by  the  spectacle  of  the  social 
wretchedness  which  was  rife  in  the  England  of  his  day 
owing  to  the  joint  operation  of  pestilence  and  war. 
Nor  in  this  respect  did  he  stand  alone.  Already  the 
miseries  of  the  down-trodden  peasantry  had  found  a 


78  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

voice  in  John  Ball,  the  mad  preacher  of  Kent ;  and 
still  more  in  the  famous  poem  of  Langland,  the  Bunyan 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  poem  in  which  Caedmon 
himself  seemed  to  have  come  back  to  life,  and  which 
was  rapidly  becoming  the  best  known  book  in  England, 
"  The  Vision  Concerning  Piers  the  Ploughman!^  * 

The  second,  or  political,  stage  in  Wyclifife's  career 
extends  from  1366  to  1378.  It  is  this  period  which 
embraces  the  years  of  his  patronage  by  John  of  Gaunt, 
whose  keen  eye  saw  in  the  upright  and  popular  Doctor 
of  theology  an  invaluable  ally  in  the  political  attack, 
which,  under  the  Duke's  powerful  leadership,  was  being 
developed  against  Church  endowments  whether  in  lands 
or  in  money,  as  giving  the  holders  of  them  too  danger- 
ous a  predominance.  Speaking  generally,  this  second 
stage  is  commensurate  with  the  gloomy  period  of 
national  humiliation  and  depression  which  darkened 
the  close  of  the  long  reign  of  Edward  III.,  and  which 
made  men  forget  the  glories  of  Crecy  and  Poictiers.  To 
these  years,  too,  belongs  the  publication  of  Wyclifife's 
Latin  treatises  on  his  famous  theory  of  Dominion.^  In 
them  he  explains,  among  other  matters,  his  views 
on  the  nature  of  property ;  on  the  relation  of  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  powers ;  and  on  the  invalidity 
of  the  feudal  claims  of  the  Papacy  over  England  ; 
subjects  which  were  exercising  the  minds  of  the  fore- 
most thinkers  of  his  day,  and  to  which  he  had  already 
devoted  a  large  part  of  his  university  lectures. 

In  the  year  1366,  soon  after  he  had  been  honoured 

*  Green's  Hist,  of  the  English  People  {1S77),  vol.  i.,  pp.  439-43. 
t  See  Appendix  B. 


POPE  URBAN' S  CLAIM  TO  TRIBUTE  79 

by  the  marked  compliment  of  an  appointment  as 
King's  chaplain  in  London,  where  he  was  soon  to 
become  famous  as  a  preacher,  he  is  said  *  to  have  been 
selected  to  defend  by  his  pen  the  decision  at  which 
Parliament  had  unanimously  arrived  against  Pope 
Urban's  claim  to  exercise  temporal  authority  in 
England.  Great  indignation  had  been  aroused  by  the 
Pope's  inopportune  demand  for  the  unpaid  arrears  of 
the  tribute  originally  imposed,  as  a  symbol  of  bondage, 
on  the  feebleness  of  King  John.  And,  from  the  fact 
that  he  was  invited  on  so  important  an  occasion  to 
champion  the  rising  spirit  of  national  independence, 
it  is  evident  that  the  Oxford  divine  must  have  become 
known  as  a  strong  anti-Roman  even  beyond  and  out- 
side his  own  academic  circle.  For  a  mere  theologian, 
however  prominent,  would  scarcely  have  been  singled 
out  to  give  his  support  to  the  State  at  such  a  juncture, 
unless  upon  the  subject  referred  to  him  he  could 
speak  with  an  authority  which  commanded  general 
respect. 

Nor  need  we  feel  any  surprise  that  Wycliffe's  dialec- 
tical fame  should  thus  have  spread  abroad.  Oxford 
was  the  intellectual  capital  of  England,  and  in  and 
out  of  her  gates  there  kept  flowing  a  ceaseless  stream 
of  students  from  every  part,  who  in  their  migrations 
to  other  universities  would  be  constantly  conveying  the 
sayings  of  her  lecture-rooms,  or  the  teachings  of  her 
pulpits,  to  the  various  continental  centres. 

In  the  year  1374  Wyclifife  was  appointed  by  the  Crown 

*  It  is  uncertain  whether  this  event  is  to  be  referred  to  the  year 
1366  or  to  the  year  1374,  when  Urban's  demand  was  renewed. 


8o  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

to  act  as  one  of  the  Royal  Commissioners  at  the  ill-timed 
and  abortive  Conference  which  met  at  Bruges.  At  that 
Conference  the  English  Commissioners  had  to  discuss 
with  the  representatives  of  the  Pope  the  delicate  subject 
of  his  incessant  interference  with  ecclesiastical  patronage 
in  England.  It  was  hardly  likely  that  any  Conference 
would  achieve  the  settlement  of  a  question,  which,  in 
spite  of  the  statute  law,  was  deliberately  kept  open  by 
the  connivance  of  Popes  and  Kings  for  their  mutual 
convenience  and  advantage.  In  1377  the  "  Babylonian 
Captivity"  came  to  an  end,  and  the  Papal  court 
returned  from  Avignon  to  Rome.  The  change  was 
one  of  far  more  than  sentimental  importance,  inasmuch 
as,  by  setting  the  Papacy  free  from  the  direct  control 
of  France,  it  went  some  way  towards  abating  the  strong 
political  hostility  which  had  been  excited  and  maintained 
in  England  by  the  long  alliance  of  the  Roman  curia 
with  the  hereditary  enemy  of  the  nation.  In  the  same 
year  there  occurred  that  *  historic  scene  in  St  Paul's  which 
marked  the  opening  of  the  Church's  campaign  against 
Wyclifife  as  the  ally  of  her  unprincipled  despoiler,  John 
of  Gaunt,  and  further  as  the  promulgator  of  doctrines 
tending  to  subvert  the  existing  ecclesiastical  order. 

There  are  two  points  in  regard  to  these  years  to 
which  we  must  invite  particular  attention.  The  first 
is,  that  whatever  hopes  Wyclifife  may  at  one  time  have 
legitimately  cherished  on  the  subject  of  Church-reform 
by  the  aid  of  the  Crown  and  of  Parliament,  these  were 
now  shattered  by  an  unforeseen  combination  of  adverse 
influences.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned  the  death 
*  Milman's  Annals  of  St  PauVs  Cathedral  (1868),  p.  76. 


WANING  PROSPECTS  OF  RELIGIOUS  REFORM    8i 

of  the  Black  Prince,  who  had  been  the  idol  of  the 
people,  and  who  was  well  disposed  towards  Wycliffe; 
the  demise  of  the  Crown  ;  the  growing  unpopularity  of 
the  all-powerful  John  of  Gaunt ;  the  general  darkening 
of  the  political  sky  ;  and  lastly,  the  apprehension  of  social 
disturbance,  a  dread  which  after  the  third  visitation  of 
the  Black  Death  in  1366  was  deepening  year  by  year. 
The  prospect  of  a  religious  in  addition  to  an  agrarian 
revolution  would  naturally  under  such  circumstances 
be  even  more  than  ordinarily  unwelcome. 

The  second  point  is,  that  the  fifty  days  which 
Wycliffe  spent  in  conclave  with  the  Pope's  ambassadors 
at  Bruges,  must,  as  in  the  analogous  case  of  Luther's 
visit  to  Rome,  have  afforded  him  a  close  insight  into 
the  inner  working  of  the  administrative  machinery  of 
Papal  aggression,  and  must  also  have  made  it  more 
evident  than  ever  in  high  quarters,  that,  in  the  fearless 
author  of  the  ''  De  Dofuinio"  the  Papacy  had  to  deal 
with  a  powerfully-supported  and  determined  foe  in  a 
controversy  which  admitted  of  no  compromise.  For 
if  Wycliffe  was  right,  the  days  of  ecclesiastical  supremacy 
were  numbered,  and  the  fatal  writing  was  already  upon 
the  wall. 

In  passing  from  Wycliffe  the  Oxford  divine,  to 
Wycliffe  the  ecclesiastical  politician  and  reformer,  there 
is  one  question  which  will  most  probably  have  already 
suggested  itself  In  what  way,  it  may  naturally  have 
been  asked,  was  the  Scholasticism  of  Oxford  connected 
in  those  days  with  politics  ?  What  had  the  inner  and 
lesser  world  of  the  University  got  to  do  with  the 
outer  and  greater  world  of  Emperors,  and  Popes,  and 

F 


82  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

Kings?  What  was  there  in  common  between  the 
metaphysical  controversies  of  Nominalists  and  Realists, 
and  the  quarrels  of  Edward  III.  and  Urban  V.? 
How  could  the  training  of  an  Oxford  theologian 
serve  to  qualify  him  for  the  exceptional  position  of  a 
guardian  of  the  public  conscience  in  such  matters  as 
the  relations  between  England  and  Rome? 

The  reader  may  perhaps  be  assisted  in  the  solution 
of  such  questions  if  he  will  remind  himself,  that,  by  the 
last  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  Scholasticism  had 
changed  in  character,  and  had  taken  a  new  departure. 
The  leading  minds  of  the  university  schools  formed  the 
intellectual  link  between  the  dying  world  of  Medievalism 
and  the  new  world  which  was  struggling  to  be  born. 
Great  University  thinkers,  like  Marsiglio  of  Padua  and 
William  of  Ockham,*  were  no  longer  shut  up  in  the 
subtleties  of  logic  and  theology.  They  had  become 
political  philosophers,  and  in  that  capacity  had  aroused 
general  attention.  In  their  published  writings  they 
treated  fearlessly  of  issues  in  which  lay  involved  the 
very  existence  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  society  as  then 
constituted.  It  was  as  natural  therefore  that  Wycliffe, 
the  philosopher  of  the  schools,  should  be  consulted  on 
a  political  issue  by  Edward  III.,  as  that  Marsiglio  and 
Ockham  should  have  been  consulted,  half  a  century 
earlier,  by  the  Emperor  Lewis  of  Bavaria  in  his 
political  fight  with  Pope  John  XXII. 

The  maxims  and  principles  of  these  continental 
Publicists  had  become  common  property,  and  were 
doubtless  familiar  to  such  an  eager  student  as  Wycliffe. 

*   Wycliffe  and  Movements  for  Reform,  R.  L.  Poole,  1889. 


WYCLIFFE  AND  CONTINENTAL  OPINION        83 

Indeed  their  very  manuscripts  would  be  readily 
accessible  to  him,  whether  in  the  libraries  of  Balliol 
and  Merton,  or  in  the  unique  collection  which  Richard 
de  Bury,  the  most,  enthusiastic  book  collector  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  had  just  bequeathed  to  the  college  of 
Durham,  a  college  the  original  site  of  which  stood 
where  Trinity  stands  to-day. 

Now  both  Marsiglio  and  Ockham  had  argued  with 
great  strenuousness  in  support  of  the  civil  power  against 
the  temporal  jurisdiction  of  the  Papacy.  They  had 
further  contended  that  the  principle  of  sovereignty,  in 
Church  and  State  alike,  must  be  held  ultimately  to  repose 
on  a  popular  and  not  upon  either  a  monarchical  or  an 
oligarchical  basis.  The  State,  they  held,  meant  the 
whole  body  of  citizens.  The  Church,  in  like  manner, 
meant  the  whole  body  of  Christian  people.  And  we 
must  recollect  that  it  is  to  this  very  Ockham  that 
Wycliffe  has  confessed  himself  to  have  been  largely 
indebted  in  forming  his  views  upon  ecclesiastical 
problems.  On  metaphysical  questions  the  two  doctors 
were  fundamentally  disagreed,  for  while  Wycliffe  was 
a  moderate  Realist,  and  inclined  therefore  to  Platonism, 
Ockham  was  the  great  re-discoverer  of  Nominalism,  and 
was  in  many  respects  an  Aristotelian. 

Their  agreement,  however,  extended  to  the  views 
which  they  held  on  the  vexed  subject  of  "  evangelical 
poverty,"  a  subject  which  had  already  given  rise  to 
much  angry  controversy,  and  this  too  within  the  Church 
itself,  by  bringing  to  the  front  the  embarrassing  problem 
of  religious  and  moral  ideals. 

The  political  and  religious  world  into  which  Wycliffe 


84  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

had  been  born  may  be  described  as  a  world  more 
prodigal  of  great  questions  than  of  their  solutions.  In 
the  sphere  of  the  religious  life  it  reflected  two  strongly 
contrasted  principles  which  had  recently  come  into 
violent  collision,  the  ascetic  principle  and  the  mundane. 
This  collision  had  brought  about  a  mutiny  in  the 
ranks  of  one  out  of  the  two  great  wings  of  the  Papal 
army,  namely,  the  Franciscan  friars.  At  the  Conference 
which  met  during  the  year  1322  at  Perugia,  the 
"spiritual"  Franciscans  had  broken  away  from  the 
main  body,  and  during  the  fourteenth  century  the 
breach  between  them  remained  unrepaired.  To  the 
one  side  therefore  belonged  the  mundane  or  political 
ideal  which  stood  embodied  in  the  hierarchical  Church  ; 
the  ideal  of  men  like  Hildebrand,  Innocent,  and 
Boniface  VIII. ;  with  a  strict  celibacy  for  its  foundation, 
with  its  crown  of  pomp,  and  wealth,  and  splendour, 
having  tithes  for  its  taxes,  and  prelates  for  its  nobles. 
On  the  other  side,  the  side  which  attracted  Wyclifife's 
sympathies,  there  was  the  religious  and  ascetic  ideal 
of  saintly  philanthropists  like  St  Bernard,  St  Francis 
of  Assisi,  and  Peter  Waldo  ;  the  "  Imitation  of 
Christ,"  the  going  about  doing  good,  the  glorification 
of  poverty  as  the  note  of  a  genuine  Church,  and 
the  consequent  condemnation  of  great  possessions  in 
that  they  let  and  hindered  true  spirituality  of  life,  as 
exemplified  and  inculcated  in  the  Gospel  history. 

Pope  John  XXII.  had  found  it  expedient,  in  self- 
defence,  to  brand  the  doctrine  of  the  "spirituals"  as 
heretical,  but,  whether  heretical  or  orthodox,  it  not 
unnaturally  was  welcome  to  reflective  and  pious  minds  as 


THE  SPIRITUAL  FRANCISCANS  85 

a  refreshing  contrast  to  what  was  obtruding  itself  upon 
the  world  as  the  accepted  ideal  of  Avignon.  For  just  as 
the  political  aspirations  of  the  Papacy  had  received  at 
the  opening  of  the  century  a  deadly  blow  when  King 
Philip  burnt  the  famous  Bull,  "  Ausculta  Fili,"  in  the 
streets  of  Paris,  so,  by  the  secession  of  the  "  Fraticelli " 
from  their  brother  Franciscans,  a  corresponding  blow 
was  levelled  at  the  spiritual  claims  of  the  Avignese 
Court  to  be  regarded  as  the  divinely-appointed  ensample 
of  Christian  living. 

Thus  on  two  of  the  great  questions  of  his  day, — 
the  question  of  the  right  relation  of  the  temporal  to 
the  spiritual  power,  and  the  question  of  Church  endow- 
ments,— Wyclifife  held  opinions  which  on  their  political 
side  attached  him  to  the  continental  and  anti-Papal 
school  of  Ockham  and  Marsiglio,  and  on  their  re- 
ligious side  to  the  schismatic  spiritual  Franciscans,  or 
"  Fraticelli,"  of  whom  Ockham  was  one  of  the  chief 
leaders.  In  theology  proper  Wycliffe  resembled  Luther 
in  being  a  Predestinarian,  and  a  devoted  follower  of  St 
Augustine,  the  Father  whose  works  were  looked  up  to 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages  with  a  reverence  resembling 
that  which  was  paid  to  the  Institutions  of  Calvin  at  the 
*time  of  the  Reformation.  In  this  respect  he  adopted 
the  principles  of  his  famous  predecessor  at  Oxford, 
Bradwardine,  whose  treatise  against  the  prevalent 
Pelagianism  of  the  period  was  for  many  years  a 
much-used  and  valued  text-book. 

The  year  1377  has  been  selected  as  marking  the 
ulterior  limit  of  the  second  stage  in  Wycliffe's  career, 
because  during  the  following  year  there  occurred  an 


86  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

event  which,  both  for  the  reformer  himself  and  for  the 
world  at  large,  was  to  have  the  most  momentous  con- 
sequences. The  Papal  Schism  of  1378  is  the  greatest 
religious  crisis  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  with  it 
we  enter  upon  the  last  of  our  three  stages,  and  upon  the 
final  act  in  the  drama  of  Wycliffe's  life.  Up  to  this 
point  his  outward  and  admitted  antagonism  to  Rome, 
and  to  the  national  Church  of  his  own  country,  had 
been  directed,  first  against  the  increasing  claims  of  the 
Popes  and  of  the  hierarchy  to  temporal  jurisdiction  and 
power  in  England  ;  next  against  ecclesiastical  endow- 
ments ;  and  finally  against  the  worldliness  and  moral 
decadence  and  lax  discipline  of  the  clergy. 

But  it  was  an  essential  feature  in  the  idea  of  the 
Papacy  that  the  Vicar  of  Christ  in  his  sacred  office  was 
the  representative  of  the  indivisibility  of  truth.  In  the 
See  of  Rome  the  world  had  been  taught  to  find  the 
symbol  and  the  guarantee  of  religious  unity.  Suddenly 
therefore  to  exhibit  the  seamless  vesture  of  Latin  Chris- 
tianity as  rent  in  twain,  and  the  Papacy  as  the  open 
battlefield  of  rival  claimants  each  professing  to  be  the 
true  Pope,  was  to  give  religious  faith  a  shock  such  as 
nowadays  we  are  scarcely  able  to  realise.  Spiritual 
obedience,  torn  rudely  from  its  old  moorings,  drifted 
away  into  a  divided  allegiance  with  no  better  bond  of 
cohesion  than  the  mere  accident  of  country.  In  prin- 
ciple the  Schism  was  a  political  struggle  between  Italy 
and  France  for  the  spoils  of  the  Papacy,  and  while 
the  rival  Popes  were  denouncing  each  other  as  Anti- 
Christ,  Christendom  was  plunged  in  blood  and  left 
denuded  of  spiritual  leadership. 


THE  GREAT  SCHISM  87 

So  tremendous  a  catastrophe  could  not  leave 
a  man  of  Wycliffe's  temperament  unaffected.  It 
occurred,  moreover,  at  a  period  of  his  life  when  a 
long  and  profound  study  of  the  Bible  had  made  him 
feel  surer  than  ever  of  his  own  religious  ground ;  when 
nearly  twenty  years'  experience  as  a  country  clergy- 
man had  rendered  him  familiar  with  the  spiritual  needs 
of  the  poor,  and  with  the  unspiritual  wares  of  the 
ubiquitous  friars ;  and,  lastly,  when  the  citations  of 
the  bishops,  and  the  bulls  of  the  Pope,  had  shown 
him  that  his  days  of  free  speech,  and  perhaps,  too, 
his  days  of  personal  safety,  were  speedily  drawing  to 
an  end. 

Accordingly,  from  the  year  1378  onwards,  Wycliffe's 
enmity  to  Rome  will  be  found  to  broaden  and  deepen, 
and  to  separate  him  more  and  more  from  his  old 
supporters.  It  is  not  now  the  Oxford  Schoolman 
whom  we  see,  nor  yet  the  ecclesiastical  reformer,  but 
rather  a  solitary  figure  somewhat  after  the  likeness  of 
one  of  the  old  Jewish  prophets,  abandoned  by  his  old 
allies,  and  yet  girding  himself  for  a  single-handed 
attack  on  the  central  citadel  of  the  Catholic  faith. 

For  Wycliffe  now  no  longer  limits  his  hostility  to 
the  undue  range  of  the  Pope's  authority,  but  directs  it 
against  the  institution  of  the  Papacy  itself,  against  the 
monarchical  element  in  Catholicism.  He  declaims 
against  the  Holy  See  in  terms  of  the  most  pungent 
bitterness,  and  even  calls  it  the  "poison"  of  the 
whole  ecclesiastical  system.  It  is  not  the  wealth  only, 
nor  yet  the  mere  conduct  and  mode  of  life  of  the 
clergy,  that  he  now  challenges,  but  the  very  principle 


88  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

of  sacerdotalism,  and  the  metaphysical  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation, — the  miraculous  "  making  of  the  body 
of  Christ," — as  its  most  concentrated  form  of  expres- 
sion. He  even  goes  so  far  as  to  compare  the  rival 
pontiffs  to  "two  dogs  snarling  bver  a  bone,"  and 
suggests  that  the  quickest  way  to  end  the  fight  would 
be  to  take  the  bone  away.  Evidently  his  mind  had 
developed  apace  between  his  earlier  Oxford  days 
and  the  date  of  this  great  turning  point  of  his 
career. 

Accordingly  it  was  very  possibly  under  the  stress 
of  the  present  juncture  that  his  mind  was  made  up 
to  bring  forth  what  he  believed  to  be  the  great 
antidote  to  the  "poison"  of  Rome,  and  that  the 
design  of  making  a  complete  translation  of  the  Bible, 
a  task  which  he  so  often  advocates  in  his  writings, 
and  which  was  long  held,  as  it  were,  in  solution  in  his 
thoughts,  was  now  precipitated  by  the  course  of  events. 
At  any  rate  he  seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  busy 
in  further  developing  the  organisation  of  his  institution 
of  "poor  preachers,"  or  bible-clerks  not  holding  any 
episcopal  license,  to  act  as  missionary  agents  for 
bringing  the  Gospel  home  to  the  artisans  and  yeomen 
and  peasantry  of  England.  Probably  they  may 
have  been  intended  to  serve  both  as  a  counter-weight 
to  the  officious  and  predatory  friars,  "the  spoilt 
children  of  the  Papacy,"  and  as  a  corrective  to  the 
lethargy  and  ignorance  of  the  half-starved  parochial 
clergy.  Religious  leaflets,  and  sheets  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, were  distributed  among  these  missioners  as  fast 
as  the  translation  could   be   carried  on.      Explanatory 


TRANSUBSTANTIA  TION  A  TTA CKED  89 

tracts  and  papers,  written  in  idiomatic  and  pithy 
English,  were  poured  out  as  supplementary  aids  to 
the  work  of  teaching  and  preaching,  for  which  they 
had  been  trained  at  Oxford  and  Leicester  and  else- 
where, and  with  which,  like  the  itinerant  preachers 
whom  Wesley  sent  out  broadcast  some  four  centuries 
later,  they  were  entrusted. 

In  1379  appeared  Wycliffe's  treatise  "  On  the  Truth 
of  Holy  Scripture"  By  the  spring  of  1381,  just  before 
the  outbreak  of  what  he  terms  the  "lamentable  con- 
flict "  of  the  Peasants'  War,  he  had  recovered  from  his 
dangerous  illness  of  1379,  and  was  lecturing  at  Oxford 
against  a  belief  nearly  twenty  generations  old,  the  belief, 
namely,  that,  by  virtue  of  the  words  of  consecration 
in  the  Eucharist,  an  actual  change  of  "substance,"  to 
use  the  Latin  equivalent  for  an  idea  imported  from 
Greek  philosophy,  was  miraculously  worked  by  every 
priest  in  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine. 

Early  in  1382  he  was  cited  by  Archbishop  Courtenay 
to  appear  before  a  Synod  *  at  the  priory  of  the  Black 
Friars  in  London,  the  site  of  which  is  now  occupied 
by  the  printing  offices  of  the  Times.  His  attack 
on  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  though  it  was 
rather  a  logical  than  a  religious  attack,  for  he  was 
himself  what  is  termed  a  consubstantiationist,  had  put 
the  finishing  touch  to  his  increasing  isolation.  Notwith- 
standing that  he  neither  expressed  nor  felt  any  doubt 
that  spiritually  and  sacramentally  there  was  a  Real 
Presence  in  the  Eucharist  which  defied  definition,  he 
was  under  no  illusions  as  to  the  danger  of  his  position. 
*  Fasc.  Zi.^  272,  277  ;  Wilkin's  Concilia^  iii.,  157. 


90  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

In  his  "  Truth  of  Holy  Scripture"  to  which  reference  has 
been  made  above,  he  admits  that  he  is  expecting  that  he 
will  either  be  burnt,  or  else  put  out  of  the  way  by  some 
other  form  of  death,*  As  was  said  above,  it  is  incredible 
that,  if  Wycliffe  had  not  had  such  powerful  protectors,  if 
Rome  had  not  been  so  organically  weakened  by  the 
"  Babylonian  Captivity,"  and  still  more  by  the  Schism, 
and  if  the  national  Church  had  not  been  so  divided 
against  herself,  the  authorities  would  have  rested  satisfied 
with  bulls  and  synodical  condemnations,  or  would  ever 
have  stopped  short  of  the  direst  penalties  in  dealing 
with  so  audacious  and  dangerous  an  assailant. 

It  was  to  no  purpose  that  John  of  Gaunt,  who  had 
no  mind  to  add  to  his  unpopularity  by  embarking  in  a 
doctrinal  quarrel  with  the  hierarchy,  hurried  down  to 
Oxford  in  the  vain  hope  of  persuading  Wycliffe  to  be 
silent  on  the  subject  of  the  Eucharist,  Forced  to  decide 
between  principle  and  expediency,  the  reformer  had  no 
hesitation  in  sacrificing  the  Lancastrian  alliance  to  the 
cause  of  what  he  thought  to  be  true,  "  /  am  confidentl'' 
he  said,  "  tJiat  in  tlie  end  the  truth  must  prevail^  Even 
his  beloved  University  of  Oxford,  where  his  supporters 
were  now  powerless  against  the  united  authority  of  the 
Church  and  the  Crown,  was  compelled  to  discard  him, 
and  he  retired  unmolested  to  Lutterworth,  never  to  leave 
it  again.  On  July  i,  1382,  Hereford  and  some  others 
of  his  party  were  excommunicated,  though  Wycliffe 
himself,  probably  from  considerations  of  practical  pru- 
dence, was  still  left  severely  alone. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  the  mental  strain, 
*  Ut  sim  combustions^  vel  alid  morte  extinctus. 


WYCLIFFES  PLACE  IN  LITERATURE  91 

under  which  he  had  long  gone  on  working  with  all  his 
indefatigable  industry  and  courage,  brought  on  a  stroke 
of  paralysis.  Two  years  later  came  the  end.  While 
celebrating  mass  in  Lutterworth  Church  he  was  struck 
for  the  second  time,  and  on  the  31st  of  December  he 
died.  "  Admirable,"  says  Fuller  in  his  quaint  style, 
"  admirable  that  a  hare  so  often  hunted  with  so  many 
packs  of  dogs  should  die  at  last  quietly  sitting  in  his  form." 

Wycliffe's  great  bequests  to  his  country  were  his 
translation  and  his  personal  character.  He  cannot  be 
said  to  have  organised  any  scheme  of  religious  reform, 
and  his  followers,  the  Lollards,  gravitated  into  a 
political  faction  holding  opinions  so  extreme  as  to 
alarm  the  world  around  them,  and  to  occasion  a  strong 
reaction. 

The  Wycliffe  Bible  was  spoken  of  in  the  preceding 
chapter  as  being  not  merely  a  book  but  an  event. 
There  attaches  to  it,  in  other  words,  a  historical  as 
well  as  a  literary  importance.  For  while  it  announces 
that  a  new  stage  has  been  reached  in  the  evolution  of 
our  native  tongue,  it  marks  also,  as  we  have  now  seen, 
a  momentous  epoch  in  our  religious  development. 

Chaucer,  the  herald  of  the  Renaissance,  is  a  far 
greater  literary  name  in  our  annals  than  Wycliffe,  the 
herald  of  the  Reformation.  It  was  Chaucer,  no  doubt, 
who  by  his  genius  impressed  the  literary  stamp  on  our 
language  ;  but  it  was  Wycliffe  who,  in  his  own  field,  and 
addressing  his  own  audience,  made  ready  and  prepared 
the  way. 

The  rivalry  between  Norman-French  and  English 
had  come  at  length  to  an  end.     Largely  owing  to  the 


92  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

loss  of  Normandy  in  the  reign  of  King  John,  and  to  the 
loss  of  Aquitaine  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  the  con- 
tinental invader  had  been  gradually  turning  into  an 
Englishman.  In  the  twelfth  century  English  had  been 
to  the  dominant  race  nothing  else  but  a  foreign 
language.  As  the  vernacular  of  everyday  life  it  had 
naturally  remained  the  spoken  language  of  the  subject 
population ;  but  no  Norman  magnate  of  the  twelfth 
century  would  have  used  English  except  under  circum- 
stances where  his  native  tongue  promised  to  be  un- 
intelligible to  those  whom  he  was  addressing.  With 
the  fourteenth  century  there  had  come  a  great  change. 
The  conquered  Saxon  had  at  length  completed  the 
assimilation  of  his  conqueror,  and  the  Norman  had 
become  finally  naturalised.  While  French  still  kept 
up  its  social  position  as  the  language  of  polite  society, 
it  had  come  to  be  the  general  practice  for  every  gentle- 
man to  know  the  native  English,  inasmuch  as  the 
foreign  settlers  now  felt  themselves  to  be  no  longer 
Normans  but  Englishmen.  The  feeling  of  patriotism 
had,  moreover,  been  intensified  by  the  prolonged  wars 
with  France.  The  victories  of  Crecy  and  Poictiers  could 
not  but  throw  into  relative  disfavour  the  language  of 
the  defeated  foe,  and  the  national  speech  had  been 
quick  to  feel  the  reaction. 

Accordingly  we  find  that  from  the  literary  point  of 
view  there  is  a  very  marked  contrast  between  the  first 
and  second  half  of  the  century,  Higden,  a  monk  who 
lived  during  the  earlier  half  of  it,  tells  us  that — 

"  Children  in  school  be  compelled  for  to  leave  their  own  language 
and  for  to  construe  their  lessons  in  French" 


ENGLISH  SUPERSEDES  FRENCH  93 

John  of  Trevisa,  writing  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II., 
shows  us  the  progress  of  the  literary  revolution.  With 
reference  to  French  he  says — 

"This  manner  is  somewhat  changed.  For  John  Cornwall,  a 
master  of  grammar,  changed  the  lore  in  grammar  school  and  con- 
struing of  French  into  English.  So  that  now  (1385),  in  all  the 
grammar  schools  of  England,  children  leaveth  FretKh  and  con- 
strueth  and leameth  in  English" 

In  1 362  all  pleadings  in  the  courts  of  law  were  ordered 
to  be  drawn  in  English,  "  because  the  French  tongue  is 
much  unknown,"  and  in  the  following  year,  Parliament, 
a  word  be  it  observed  of  French  lineage,  was  opened  for 
the  first  time  in  an  English  speech. 

The  Wycliffe  Bible  is  accordingly  no  isolated  literary 
phenomenon.  Its  appearance  coincides  with  a  general 
movement  towards  the  expression  in  a  national  lan- 
guage of  the  rapidly  developing  sense  of  nationality, 
and  of  this  movement  it  is  the  greatest  monument  in 
prose  that  remains  to  us. 

The  position  which  this  version  occupies  in  our 
religious  history  is  as  notable  as  is  its  place  in  our 
literature.  From  the  former  point  of  view  it  represents 
the  appeal  of  a  man  of  spiritual  mind — a  man  whose  life 
had  been  devoted  to  battling  against  what  he  deemed 
to  be  corruption  and  superstition — to  the  consciences 
and  to  the  unsophisticated  instincts  of  the  mass  of  his 
fellow-countrymen.  It  was  born  of  Wycliffe's  desire  to 
provide  a  medicine  for  the  sickness  of  the  times,  and  to 
bring  about  a  revival  of  the  moral  and  personal  element 
in  religion.  It  represented  his  conviction  that  men  are 
more  than  mere  units  in  an  ecclesiastical  system.     And, 


94  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

lastly,  it  was  his  indignant  protest  against  that  divorce  of 
creed  from  conduct,  and  of  profession  from  practice, 
which  was  the  abiding  disgrace  and  scandal  of  regular 
and  secular  alike.  It  may  be  worth  while  to  glance  at 
the  component  elements  of  the  ecclesiastical  society  of 
a  century  whose  moral  tone  was  as  dissolute  as  it  was 
sordid. 

Monk  and  abbot  and  prior  lived,  all  of  them,  in 
luxurious  indolence ;  the  bishops  were  in  no  sense 
spiritual  overseers,  but  merely  ambitious  politicians  and 
statesmen  ;  the  higher  cathedral  dignitaries  were  largely 
represented  by  Italian  absentees  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  their  deaneries  and  canonries  by  the  Pope ; 
the  friars,  who  retained  the  old  habits  of  mendicancy, 
but  who  had  long  since  dispensed  with  asceticism,  had 
become  proverbial  for  their  effrontery,  their  cupidity, 
and  their  capacity  for  unblushing  imposture.  They 
heard  confessions,  they  preached,  they  administered  the 
sacraments,  they  hawked  about  their  cheap  indulgences 
just  as  a  strolling  pedlar  might  hawk  his  wares.  They 
abused  the  widespread  influence  which  education  and 
wealth,  as  well  as  the  support  of  the  monasteries  and  of 
the  Pope,  conferred  upon  them,  in  order  to  make  their 
fortunes  out  of  the  ruin  of  the  parochial  priests  whose 
tithes  had  been  annexed  by  the  regulars,  and  who,  like 
the  still  lower  order  of  chantry  priests,  were  usually  too 
ignorant  to  teach,  and  often  almost  too  poor  to  live. 

Wycliffe,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  the  first  of  our 
countrymen  to  conceive  the  idea  of  translating  the 
whole  of  the  Latin  Bible  into  English.  And  not 
only  did    he   conceive   the    idea,   but  he   put   it   into 


ORIGINALITY  OF  WYCLIFFE  95 

practical  shape.  Of  like  originality  was  his  scheme 
for  organising  what  was  in  effect  a  new  religious  order, 
an  order  of  poor  though  not  mendicant  preachers, 
unfettered  by  any  strict  conventual  vows,  and  yet  with 
something  of  the  culture  and  spirit  of  the  Franciscan, 
and  labouring  by  friendly  intercourse  with  the  people 
to  bring  the  Scriptures  within  their  apprehension.  In 
these  two  respects  our  first  reformer  must  be  admitted 
to  have  been  earliest  in  the  field.  Let  us  now  see 
what  it  was  that  he  may  justly  claim  to  have  done  for 
England  and  for  the  English  Bible. 

It  is  hardly  possible  without  the  aid  of  the  historic 
imagination  to  realise  fully  all  that  the  first  appearance 
and  the  wide  distribution  of  this  translation  really 
meant.  "//  n'y  a  que  le premier  pas  qui  coute"  runs  the 
old  French  saying,  and  the  first  definite  step  towards 
any  systematic  evangelisation  of  the  farmers  and  traders 
and  peasantry  of  this  country,  by  opening  up  to  them 
the  Scriptures,  is  due  entirely  to  Wycliffe. 

He  has  often  been  called  an  idealist  and  a  visionary, 
and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  charge  is  not  without 
foundation.  But  surely  nothing  could  be  less  visionary 
than  the  carefully  devised  plan  by  which  the  long- 
forgotten  teaching  of  Jesus  Himself,  and  of  His 
immediate  disciples,  was  brought  home  to  the  minds 
of  men  and  women  whose  religious  experience  had 
so  far  been  practically  confined  to  the  services  of  the 
medieval  Church  and  to  the  rhetorical  preaching  of  the 
"  Pardoners  "  of  the  day. 

"  Look  here  upon  this  picture,  and  on  this,"  we 
almost  seem  to  overhear  John   Wycliflfe  saying,  "and 


96  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

make  your  choice  between  the  Founder  of  your  faith 
and  the  friars,  between  the  wordiness  of  the  men  who 
shrive  and  shear  you,  and  the  unadulterated  word  of 
God."  The  new  teaching  seems  to  have  spread  with 
wonderful  rapidity.  "  You  cannot  travel  anywhere  in 
England','  wrote  one  of  his  bitterest  opponents,  ^^ but 
of  every  two  men  you  meet  one  will  be  a  Lollard^ 

The  educated  portion  of  the  clergy  had  of  course  their 
own  Latin  manuscript  Bibles,  and  we  have  evidence  that 
among  them  were  to  be  found  men  who  had  acquired 
a  sound  Scriptural  knowledge.  But  such  men  were  the 
exception  not  the  rule,  for  it  was  not  Bible-teaching 
which  in  those  ages  formed  the  real  staple  of  ecclesi- 
astical work.  The  upper  classes  of  the  laity  had  also 
their  own  form  of  Bible  for  devotional  use,  seeing  that 
a  translation  of  the  Vulgate  had  been  made  in  the 
thirteenth  century  into  Norman- French.  'Mj  lords  in 
England  have  the  Bible  in  French"  writes*  Wycliffe, 
about  the  date  of  the  great  Schism,  "so  it  were  not 
against  reason  that  they  hadden  the  same  in  English^ 

In  addition  to  the  written  Scriptures  there  were 
the  dramatic  scenes  of  the  miracle-plays,  and  the  rude 
pictures  of  the  ^^Biblia  Pauperum."  Poetical  paraphrases, 
too,  as  we  have  seen,  were  in  local  circulation,  such, 
for  example,  as  "  Genesis  and  Exodus"  and  "  Cursor 
Mundi"  and  doubtless  Wycliffe  would  be  familiar  with 
such  works,  but  a  poetical  paraphrase  is  not  a  transla- 
tion, nor  is  the  educational  effect  of  a  roving  manuscript 
in  the  least  degree  to  be  compared  with  the  effect  of 
well  organised  teaching  by  means  of  a  trained  missionary 
*  In  his  De  officio  PastorcUi. 


GREATNESS  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH       97 

clergy.  The  thirteenth  century  was  one  of  remarkable 
activity  in  the  diffusion  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament  had  all,  or  almost  all  of  them, 
been  anonymously  translated,  by  various  hands  working 
in  various  centres,  before  the  central  decade  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  No  scholar,  however,  before  Wycliffe 
had  produced  an  English  rendering  of  the  entire  Vul- 
gate, nor  had  any  man  had  the  invincible  courage  to 
embark  on  what  must  have  seemed  the  all  but  hopeless 
task  of  setting  up,  as  the  guide  to  daily  life,  a  New 
Testament  which  spoke  to  each  man  in  his  own  native 
tongue,  and  which  was  rendered  plain  and  clear  to  him 
by  the  living  voice  of  an  interpreter  making  itself 
heard  within  the  quiet  precincts  of  his  home. 

Courage  indeed  was  needed,  for,  whatever  its 
intrinsic  merits  or  demerits,  Catholicism  had  created 
for  itself  a  position  of  immeasurable  authority 
and  strength.  During  long  centuries  it  had  presided 
over  the  greater  portion  of  human  life,  and  had 
occupied  the  field  unchallenged.  It  was  in  genuine 
sympathy  with  some  of  the  deepest  cravings  of  the 
human  soul.  It  was  clothed  with  tremendous  sanctions 
both  for  time  and  for  eternity.  It  was  supported  by 
vast  resources  of  wealth  and  organisation.  It  exer- 
cised over  the  imaginations  of  men  an  almost  bound- 
less power.  Through  its  vast  army  of  monks  and 
friars  and  clergy  it  monopolised  almost  all  the  craft 
and  learning  of  the  age.  It  was  supported  by  a 
material  backing  of  rich  churches  and  abbeys  and 
monasteries,  by  the  fellowship  of  art  and  of  letters, 
by   the   command    of   all    educational    and   charitable 

G 


98  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

institutions.  If  such  a  Church  as  this  had  only  been 
willing  to  set  its  own  house  in  order,  it  is  not  easy  to 
see  how  the  great  events  of  the  sixteenth  century 
would  ever  have  come  about.  But  Rome  decided 
otherwise,  and  though  during  the  fifteenth  century 
Lollardy,  in  a  religious  sense,  seemed  to  have 
been  temporarily  stamped  out,  yet  the  influences 
which  Wycliffe  had  been  able  to  set  in  motion  were 
working  their  invisible  and  subterraneous  work,  so 
that,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little,  the  soil  was 
being  secretly  prepared  for  the  advent  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

Although  the  Wycliffe  Bible  is  held  to  date  (as  has 
been  already  stated)  from  1382,  it  found  no  expression  in 
a  printed  form  for  nearly  five  hundred  years.  It  was  not 
until  1 850  that  the  sumptuous  edition,  in  four  large  quarto 
volumes,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  industry  of 
Forshall  and  Madden,  was  issued  by  the  Clarendon 
Press  with  the  following  title,  "  The  Holy  Bible,  contain- 
ing the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  with  the  Apocryphal 
Books,  in  the  earliest  English  Versions  made  from  the 
Latin  Vulgate  by  John  Wycliffe  and  his  followers, 
edited  by  tJie  Rev.  J.  Forshall  and  Sir  F.  Madden!^ 

This  admirable  edition  cost  its  authors  some  twenty 
years  of  labour,  and  involved  the  examination  of  not  less 
than  170  manuscript  copies.  It  will  not  have  escaped 
notice  that  the  title  speaks  of  "  versions  "  in  the  plural, 
and  it  is  now  an  admitted  fact  that  before  the  four- 
teenth century  had  run  out  two  entirely  separate  versions 
of  the  Wycliffe  Bible  were  in  existence.  Of  these  two 
the  original  version  is  attributed   in   part  to  Wycliffe 


THE  TWO  WYCLIFFITE  VERSIONS  99 

himself,  and  in  part  to  his  devoted  friend  and 
disciple,  Nicholas  of  Hereford.  {See  note  at  end  of 
this  chapter^ 

It  is  not  possible  to  say  at  what  precise  date  this 
original  translation  began  to  be  made,  but  it  was  probably 
finished  by  the  year  1382.  The  later  version  of  1388, 
which  is  often  wrongly  quoted  as  the  Wyclifife  Bible,  is 
really  a  revision  of  the  edition  of  1382  by  John  Purvey, 
Wycliffe's  curate  at  Lutterworth,  and  by  others  whose 
names  are  not  known.  It  is  significant  of  the  times 
that  both  the  earlier  and  the  later  version  should 
have  been  anonymous.  Without  an  episcopal  license 
it  was  only  at  a  man's  own  personal  peril  that 
he  ventured  to  translate  Scripture  into  the  verna- 
cular. It  is  true  that  until  the  year  1408  we  can  point 
to  no  direct  ordinance  of  prohibition  in  England,  for  the 
authorities  had  seen  no  cause  for  alarm,  but  the  mere 
fact  that  an  episcopal  license  should  at  this  time  have 
become  indispensable  is  sufficient  evidence  as  to  the 
changed  attitude  of  the  Church.*  Indeed,  the  very 
existence  of  the  Dominican  friars,  the  Pope's  watch- 
dogs of  orthodoxy,  could  not  fail  to  point  men  back 
to  the  relentless  trampling  out  of  the  Albigensian  • 
heresy,  and  to  the  statute  of  the  Council  of  Toulouse 
which  was  passed  in  A.D.  1229,  and  which  enacts  that 
no  layman  should  be  allowed  to  have  any  book  either 
of  the  Old  Testament  or  of  the  New,  especially  in  a 

*  Foxe  refers  to  numerous  cases  of  prosecution  for  owning 
or  reading  the  Scriptures  in  English,  iii., 595-7  ;  iv.,  178,  221-3,  ^tc. 
In  1414  a  law  was  made  enacting  that  all  persons  who  read  the 
Scriptures  in  the  mother  tongue  should  ^''forfeit  land,  cately  lif^ 
and  goods  from  their  heyres  for  ever"  (Eadie,  vol.  i.,  89). 


loo  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

translation,  "  unless  perhaps  the  Psalter,  a  Breviary, 
or  the  Hours  of  the  Virgin." 

In  1 40 1  the  statute  book  was  disgraced  by  the 
monstrous  Act  "  concerning  the  burning  of  heretics." 
In  1408  Archbishop  Arundel  made  certain  constitutions, 
one  of  which  rendered  it  penal  to  read  any  of  Wycliffe's 
writings  or  translations  within  the  province  of  Canter- 
bury, "  until  the  said  translation  be  allowed  by  the 
ordinary  of  the  place,  or,  if  the  case  so  require,  by  the 
council  provincial  (Wilkin's  Concilia,  iii.,  317). 

Detected  copies  of  the  Bible,  or  of  any  of  its  com- 
ponent books,  would  consequently  be  destroyed,  and 
when  we  bear  in  mind  how  difficult  it  must  have  been 
to  escape  detection,  and  how  the  multiplication  of  copies 
would  necessarily  be  limited  by  the  cost  of  parchment 
and  by  the  expense  of  transcription,  the  survival  for 
5CXD  years  of  as  many  as  170  manuscripts  makes  it 
clear  that  the  Wycliffite  translation  must  have  been 
both  widely  distributed  and  carefully  treasured. 

Of  these  surviving  copies  it  is  interesting  to  know 
that  not  more  than  thirty  belong  to  the  original  version 
of  1382,  and  that  of  the  remainder,  which  reproduce 
the  revision  of  1388,  the  greater  part  were  most  likely 
written  between  the  years  1420  and  1450,  and  at  a 
time  therefore  when  the  veto  of  Archbishop  Arundel 
would  have  become  generally  notorious.  The  only 
explanation  can  be,  that  in  this  matter  of  an  English 
Bible  men  were  quite  ready  to  run  the  risk.  Moreover, 
the  nature  of  the  manuscripts  indicates  that  it  was 
not  merely  the  rich  or  the  powerful  who  were  thus 
willing  to  encounter  what  to  them,  perhaps,  would  have 


INDICATIONS  OF  THE  POPULAR  DEMAND     loi 

been  a  merely  nominal  danger,  but  that  it  was  also  the 
comparatively  obscure.  Only  a  few  of  the  copies  which 
have  come  down  to  us  are  on  a  scale  suited  either  for 
exalted  dignitaries  or  for  great  libraries.*  The  large 
majority  of  extant  specimens  are  of  pocket  size,  and 
were  obviously  intended  for  ordinary  folk  and  for 
daily  use. 

The  testimony  of  Foxe,  if  we  could  rely  on  it, 
is  in  a  similar  direction.  Considerable  sums,  he  says, 
were  paid  even  for  detached  sheets,  and  as  much  as 
a  load  of  hay  for  the  loan  of  a  whole  Testament  for 
an  hour  a  day.  With  regard  to  cost,  it  has  been 
estimated  that  early  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  complete 
copy  of  the  Bible  would  have  been  worth  more  than 
;^30  of  our  money.  We  may  add  that  specimens  of 
the  more  ornate  copies  of  the  WycHffe  Bible  have  been 
traced  up  to  the  possession  of  Henry  VI. ;  Richard 
III.;  Henry  VII.;  Richard  Duke  of  Gloucester; 
Edward  VI. ;  and  Elizabeth. 

With  respect  to  the  version  of  1382,  while  it  is  certain 
that  the  translation  of  the  Gospels  which  it  adopts  is 
by  WycHffe,  the  internal  evidence  of  style  makes  it 
more  likely  than  not  that  the  whole  of  the  New 
Testament  may  be  ascribed  to  him,  though  at  present 
we  have  no  direct  proof  that  it  was  his  personal  work. 
If  we  turn  to  the  Old  Testament  we  are  on  surer 
ground.  Among  the  treasures  of  the  Bodleian  Library 
there  is  a  MS.  which  fortunately  can  tell  its  own  tale. 
The  translation  is  carried  on  continuously  up  to  the 
book  of  Baruch.  At  this  point  it  abruptly  breaks  off  in 
*  Eadie,  vol.  i.,  80. 


I02  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

the  very  middle  of  a  verse  (iii.  20),  and  a  note  has  been 
added  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Hereford's  version 
here  comes  prematurely  to  an  end.  It  would  appear, 
therefore,  that,  while  Wycliffe  was  busy  at  Lutterworth 
with  the  New  Testament,  his  friend  Hereford  was  at 
work  in  Oxford  on  the  Old,  but  that  he  was  suddenly 
interrupted  by  a  citation  to  London  as  an  ecclesiastical 
offender. 

It  is  at  any  rate  an  ascertained  fact  that  in  July  1382 
Hereford  was  excommunicated.  Who  it  was  that  may 
have  been  responsible  for  completing  the  translation  of 
the  Old  Testament  it  is  not  now  possible  to  determine. 
Probably  it  may  have  been  Wycliffe  himself,  or  perhaps 
a  group  of  his  Oxford  friends  working  under  his  general 
supervision. 

Between  Wycliffe  and  Hereford  there  is  a  sharp 
contrast  of  style,  and  a  contrast  of  dialect  as  well. 
Wycliffe's  work  indicates  wider  practice  as  a  translator, 
while  Hereford  is  timid,  cramped,  and  slavishly  literal. 
Both  use  a  dialect,  but  while  Hereford  inclines  to  the 
dialect  of  the  South,  Wycliffe  (like  Purvey)  inclines  to 
the  dialects  of  the  East-Midlands  and  of  the  North. 

No  sooner  was  this  original  version  completed 
than  its  defects  became  evident.  In  point  of  style, 
being  by  different  hands,  it  naturally  lacked  uniformity, 
and  it  was  often  awkward  and  stiff".  Many  of  its 
renderings  were  inaccurate.  The  text  which  it  trans- 
lated was  one  that  in  the  course  of  centuries,  during 
which  printing  was  unknown,  had  become  exceedingly 
corrupt. 

A  revision  was  accordingly  taken  in  hand  at  once, 


THE  REVISION  OF  J 388  103 

with  a  view  both  to  remedy  these  defects  and  to 
make  the  translation  more  idiomatic  and  less  Latin 
in  character ;  but  Wyclifife  did  not  live  to  see  this 
revision  completed.  The  details  of  the  work  do  not 
come  within  the  scope  of  a  sketch  whose  design  is  of 
a  historical  rather  than  of  a  critical  kind.  Yet  none 
the  less  it  may  interest  the  reader  to  have  before 
him  the  author's  own  description  of  the  plan  on 
which  the  work  was  conducted. 

To  this  Bible  of  1388  there  was  prefixed  a  Prologue, 
and  this  Prologue  is  very  generally  supposed  to  have 
been  written  by  Purvey. 

The  writer  of  it,  whoever  he  may  have  been, 
explains  his  purpose  and  method  as  follows : — 

"Though  covetous  Clerks  are  mad  through  simony,  heresy, 
and  many  other  sins,  and  despise  and  impede  Holy  Writ  as 
much  as  they  can,  yet  the  unlearned  cry  after  Holy  Writ  to 
know  it,  with  great  cost  and  peril  of  their  lives.  For  those 
reasons,  and  others,  a  simple  creature  hath  translated  the  Bible 
out  of  Latin  into  English.  First,  this  simple  creature  had  much 
labour,  with  divers  companions  and  helpers,  to  gather  many  old 
Bibles,  and  other  doctors  and  common  glosses,  and  to  make  a 
Latin  Bible  somewhat  true  (i.e.,  textually  correct),  and  then  to 
study  it  anew,  the  text  with  the  gloss,  and  other  doctors,  especially 
Lire  (/.<?.,  Nicholas  de  Lyra)  on  the  Old  Testament,  who  gave 
him  great  help  in  this  work.  The  third  time  to  counsel  with 
old  grammarians  and  divines,  of  hard  words  and  sentences, 
how  they  might  best  be  translated  ;  the  fourth  time  to  translate 
as  clearly  as  he  could  to  the  sense,  and  to  have  many  good 
fellows  and  cunning  at  the  correcting  of  the  translation,  for  the 
common  Latin  Bibles  have  more  need  to  be  corrected  than  hath 
the  English  Bible*  late  translated." 

We  may  conclude  our  notice  of  these   fourteenth 
*  Wy cliffy s  Translation  of  1382, 


I04  JOHN  WYCLIFFE 

century   Bibles   by   giving   some    specimens   from   the 
original  version  of  1382. 

The  first  shall  be  from  Genesis  i.  i,  with  the  spell- 
ing more  or  less  modernised  : 

"  In  the  first  made  God  of  nought  heaven  and  earth.  The 
earth,  forsooth,  was  vain  within  and  void,  and  darknessis 
weren  upon  the  face  of  the  see.  And  the  spirit  of  God  was 
born  upon  the  waters.  And  God  said  Be  made  light  and  made 
is  light.  And  God  saw  light  that  it  was  good  and  divided  light 
fro  darkness,  and  clepide  light  day  and  darkness  night.  And 
made  is  even  and  morn  one  day." 

Here,  again,  is  Wyclifife's  translation  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  (St  Matthew,  chap,  vi.) : 

"Oure  fadir  that  art  in  heuenes,  halwid  be  thi  name,  thi 
kingdom  comme  to,  be  thi  wille  done  as  in  heuen  so  in  erthe  ; 
gif  to  us  this  day  oure  breed  ouer  other  substance ;  and  forgeue 
to  us  our  dettis  as  we  forgeue  to  oure  dettours,  and  leede  us 
not  in  to  temptacioun  but  delyuere  us  fro  yuel." 

The  Magnificat  (Luke  i.)  is  thus  rendered  : 

"  And  Mary  seyde  :  My  soul  magnifieth  the  Lord,  and  my 
spiryt  hath  gladid  in  God  myn  helthe.  For  he  hath  beholden 
the  mekenesse  of  his  handmayde  ;  Loo !  forsooth  of  this  alle 
generatiouns  schulen  seye  me  blessid.  For  he  that  is  mighti 
hath  done  grete  thingis  to  me,  and  his  name  is  holy.  And  his 
mercy  is  fro  kyndrede  in  to  kyndredis  to  men  dredinge  him. 
He  made  myght  in  his  ann,  he  scatteride  proude  men  with 
mynde  of  his  herte.  He  puttide  down  myghty  men  fro  seete, 
and  enhaunside  meke.  He  hath  fillid  hungry  men  with  goode 
thingis,  and  he  hath  left  riche  men  voide." 

Very  characteristic  in  their  directness  are  the  words 
placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  blind  man  at  the  pool  of 
Siloam  (John  ix,  11): 

"  I  wente,  and  waischid,  and  sai." 


SPECIMENS  OF  TRANSLATION  105 

The  translation  of  Rom.  xvi.  12  strikes  a  note 
of  true  tenderness : 

"  Persida,  most  dere  worthe  womman." 

So  again  in  Rom.  i.  7  : 
*' AUe  that  ben  at  Rome,  derlyngis  of  God  and  clepid  holy." 

In  I  Cor.  vi.  12  we  have  a  good  specimen  of 
Wydiffe's  use  of  assonance : 

"  All  thingis  ben  nedeful  to  me  but  not  alle  thingis  ben  spedeful." 

Finally,  the  translation  of  Matt,  xxvii.  27  takes 
us  back  at  a  bound  to  the  England  of  the  middle 
ages  : 

"...  token  Jhesu  in  the  moot  hall." 

While  in  that  of  2  Tim.  ii.  4  {nemo,  militans  Deo, 
implicat  se  negotiis  secularibus),  there  is  a  fine  feudal 
ring: 

*'  No   man  that  holdeth  knighthood  to  God  Inwlappith  silfe 
with  wordli  redis." 


Note. — A  question  has  been  recently  raised  which  challenges 
the  authenticity  of  the  Wycliffe  Bible.  Dr  Gasquet — whose  title  to 
be  respectfully  heard  no  one  can  for  a  moment  dispute — has  con- 
tended with  great  ingenuity,  that  the  versions  which  have  hitherto 
passed  as  embodying  Wycliffe's  work  are  not  his  at  all,  but  are 
translations  made  by  his  lifelong  opponents  the  Bishops.  So 
far  are  they  from  being  "  Lollard,"  that  they  are  versions 
approved  by  the  medieval  Church,  and  circulated  with  her 
sanction,  just  as  were  the  fragmentary  translations  of  earlier 
centuries.  The  Lollard  Bible,  if  ever  there  was  one,  has,  it 
is  suggested,  been  lost. 

It  does  not  come  within  the  sphere  of  this  historical  sketch 


io6    FATHER  GASQUET  AND  THE  WYCLIFFE  BIBLE 

to  pursue  controversial  topics,  but  the  balance  of  opinion 
among  students  is,  I  think,  unfavourable  to  Dr  Gasquet's 
theory,  persuasively  as  he  presents  it  in  "  The  Old  English 
Bible."  Ranged  against  him,  for  example,  are  historical 
authorities  of  the  calibre  of  Matthew,  Trevelyan,  and  Kenyon. 
The  connection  of  Wycliffe's  friends,  Hereford  and  others, 
with  the  translations  which  we  possess,  is  undisputed,  and  we 
know  that,  among  their  contemporaries,  they  were  charged 
as  being  pernicious  innovators.  If  they  were  nothing  of  the 
kind,  why  did  they  not  make  the  obvious  retort  of  pointing 
to  this  {supposed)  pre-existent  orthodox  version  ?  And  why  should 
Wycliffe  go  out  of  his  way  to  argue  from  the  existence  of  a 
French  version  to  the  propriety  of  making  an  English  one,  if  an 
English  one  had  long  since  been  brought  out  by  the  Church? 
What,  too,  would  there  have  been  to  prevent  the  ecclesiastical 
heirs  of  this  14th  century  version  from  printing  it  in  Tyndale's 
day,  and  from  thus  taking  the  wind  out  of  his  sails?  An 
interesting  review  of  the  whole  controversy  will  be  found  in 
the  Church  Quarterly  Review^  January  1901.  See  also  English 
Hist,  Review.,  1895,  x-  9i- 


WILLIAM  TYNDALE 


"The  rulers  of  the  Church  be  all  agreed  to  keep  the  world 
in  darkness,  to  the  intent  that  they  may  sit  in  the  consciences  of 
the  people  ...  to  satisfy  .  .  .  their  proud  ambition  and  unsatiable 
covetousness  .  .  .  which  thing  only  moved  me  to  translate  the 
New  Testament. 

{Preface  to  Translation  of  the  Pentateuch^ 

"  If  it  would  stand  with  the  King's  most  gracious  pleasure  to 
grant  only  a  bare  text  of  the  Scripture  to  be  put  forth  among  his 
people,  like  as  is  put  forth  among  the  subjects  of  the  Emperor  in 
these  parts,  be  it  the  translation  of  what  person  soever  shall  please 
his  Majesty,  I  shall  immediately  .  .  .  repair  into  his  realm  and 
there  most  humbly  submit  myself,  offering  my  body  to  suffer  what 
pain  or  torture,  yea,  what  death,  his  Grace  wills,  so  that  this  be 
obtained." 

{Vaughan  to  Henry  VIII.^  quoting  from  his  second 
interview  with  Tyndale  at  Bergen  in  1531.) 

"  I  call  God  to  record  that  I  never  altered  one  syllable  of  His 
word  against  my  conscience,  nor  would  this  day,  if  all  that  is  in 
the  earth,  whether  it  be  pleasure,  honour,  or  riches,  might  be 
given  me." 

{Tyndale' s  letter  to  Frith,  1532.) 

"  How  happy  is  he  bom  and  taught 

That  serveth  not  another's  will ; 
Whose  armour  is  his  honest  thought, 

And  simple  truth  his  utmost  skill. 
Whose  passions  not  his  masters  are, 

WTiose  soul  is  still  prepared  for  death. 
Untied  unto  the  world  by  care 

Of  public  fame  or  private  breath. 
Who  God  doth  late  and  early  pray 

More  of  His  grace  than  gifts  to  lend, 
And  entertains  the  harmless  day 

With  a  well-chosen  book  or  friend. 
This  man  is  free  from  servile  bands 

Of  hope  to  rise  or  fear  to  fall, 
Lord  of  himself,  though  not  of  lands, 

And,  having  nothing,  yet  hath  all." 

— H.  WOTTON. 


CHAPTER  V 

WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND   HIS  WORK 

At  the  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  English  Bible 
which  has  now  been  reached  it  becomes  necessary  to 
break  our  journey ;  for  the  history  of  the  manuscript 
Bible  ends  with  Purvey's  revision  of  1388,  while  be- 
tween that  date  and  the  appearance  of  Tyndale's  New 
Testament  there  is  a  gap  of  nearly  140  years. 

A  convenient  opportunity  thus  arises  for  a  glance 
backward  along  the  path  by  which  we  have  been 
travelling,  in  order  that  its  main  features  may  become 
firmly  imprinted  on  our  memories  before  we  resume 
our  route. 

It  was,  then,  in  the  England  of  the  Middle  Ages 
that  the  earliest  germs  were  discovered  of  a  vernacular 
Bible.  The  idea  of  a  complete  translation  of  the 
Vulgate  had  not  yet  been  conceived,  and  such  versions 
as  were  already  in  existence  had,  for  the  most  part, 
been  made  with  the  aim  of  bringing  within  the  com- 
prehension of  the  numerous  clergy,  who  knew  but 
little  of  Latin,  those  portions  of  the  Scriptures  which 
were  in  constant  liturgical  use. 

The  prevailing  type  of  religion  was  ceremonial  and 

100 


no  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

ritualistic,  and  the  Latin  Bible,  as  forming  part  of  the 
Church's  ritual,  enjoyed  as  a  rule  a  subordinate  and 
complementary  position  rather  than  any  substantial 
independence  of  its  own.  It  was  a  book  not  for  the 
uninstructed  laity,  whose  minds  and  consciences  were 
as  yet  in  the  keeping  of  their  ecclesiastical  guardians, 
but  for  the  Church,  who  held  it  in  trust  for  the  edifica- 
tion of  her  people.     It  lay,  in  short,  in  the  background. 

With  the  fourteenth  century  there  came  a  change. 
We  found  ourselves  passing  into  a  period  during  which 
the  relative  position  of  the  Bible  became  sensibly 
affected.  The  mediatorial  conceptions  of  the  medieval 
system  were  no  longer  left  unchallenged.  The  ecclesias- 
tical and  monastic  type  of  social  order  was  slowly 
making  way  for  the  civil  and  political  type,  and  the 
State  was  preparing  to  take  the  place  of  the  Church  as 
a  source  of  moral  discipline.  The  centralising  spirit  of 
Catholic  Christianity  had  come  into  conflict  with  the 
centrifugal  spirit  of  nationality,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
language  of  the  Church  had  begun  to  feel  the  rivalry 
of  the  secular  and  independent  tongues  of  modern 
Europe. 

In  his  recoil  from  the  spiritual  apathy  and  moral 
degeneracy  of  the  clergy,  Wycliffe,  who  in  the  field  of 
religion  is  the  representative  figure  in  the  collision  of  the 
old  order  with  the  new,  was  more  and  more  thrown  into 
a  one-sided  and  exaggerated  antagonism  to  that  principle 
of  corporate  life  and  social  activity  which  lies  at  the 
very  root  of  the  Christian  Church.  Convinced  in  his 
own  heart  that  the  time  had  arrived  when,  in  the  cause 
of  religious  honesty  and  truth,  it  was  essential  that  the 


WHAT  WYCLIFFE'S  AIM  HAD  BEEN  in 

contrast  between  the  principles  of  primitive  Christianity 
and  the  principles  of  the  spiritual  teachers  of  his  day 
should  be  effectually  exposed,  he  determined  that,  as 
far  as  in  him  lay,  the  nation  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  making  the  comparison.  It  was  certain  that  the 
bishops  and  friars  had  no  intention  of  bringing  the 
common  people  to  the  Bible.  At  his  own  cost,  there- 
fore, and  even  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  the  Bible  should  be 
brought  to  the  people.  Hitherto  it  had  been  the  per- 
quisite and  the  talisman  of  the  Church.  Henceforth  it 
should  be  the  common  heritage  and  daily  guide  of  the 
people  at  large.  Hitherto  it  had  spoken  in  a  foreign 
tongue.  Henceforth  it  should  speak  in  English.  The 
stone  should  be  rolled  away  from  the  mouth  of  the 
spring.  The  medicine  which  had  been  ordained  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations  should  no  longer  be  prevented 
from  ministering  to  the  deep-seated  and  many-sided 
sickness  of  the  age.  Now  that  England  had  come  to 
realise  her  political  independence,  it  should  be  his 
endeavour  to  place  in  her  hands  the  book  which  best 
could  nerve  her  for  the  struggle  through  which  her 
spiritual  independence  had  still  to  be  won. 

Such,  as  we  understand  it,  was  Wycliffe's  ideal,  and 
thus  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  position  occupied  by 
the  Bible  may  be  described  as  undergoing  a  threefold 
change.  In  the  place  of  a  fragmentary  English  Bible 
there  was  to  be  a  complete  one.  In  addition  to  a  Bible 
in  a  dead  language  for  the  private  study  of  the  clergy 
and  for  the  ritual  of  public  worship,  there  was  to  be  a 
vernacular  Bible  brought  by  the  agency  of  trained  itin- 
erant preachers  to  the  home  door.     In  the  place  of  a 


112  WILUAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

mystical  Bible,  interpreted  only  by  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rity, there  was  to  be  an  open  Bible  accessible  to  laity 
and  clergy  alike. 

In  two  respects,  however,  the  Wycliffite  versions  must 
be  said  to  belong  still  to  the  Middle  Ages.  They  had 
no  printing-press  behind  them  to  spread  abroad,  to 
multiply,  and,  what  was  equally  important,  to  cheapen 
them.  Furthermore,  they  were  but  translations  of  a 
translation,  done  into  the  half-formed  and  transitional 
dialect  of  the  day,  and  not  translations  from  the  original 
Hebrew  and  Greek  done  into  the  English  of  all  time. 
For  this  great  development  we  have  to  look  across 
the  intervening  years  which  separate  Wyclifife  from 
Tyndale. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  far  these  two  fellow-labourers 

in    the    field    of    religious   reform    are   separated    the 

one  from  the  other.     It  is  at  first  sight   less  easy   to 

discover   the   link   by  which   they  are  connected.     But 

from  a  historical  point  of  view  perhaps  we  may  find 

such  a  link  in  Lollardy.     "  Lollard  "  was  the  nickname 

given  to  Wyclifife's  followers,  but  the  origin  of  the  name 

is  uncertain.*     It  has  been  somewhat  fancifully  derived 

from  "lolium,"  the  Latin  word  for  tares,  as  denoting 

the  tares  among  the  spiritual  wheat,  but  more  probably 

*  It  may  be  that  two  different  words  became  confused  both  in 
form  and  sense.     "  Lollardus,"  in  medieval  Latin,  is  used  of  one 
who  mumbles  hymns  and  prayers  ;  while  "  loller,"    in    Middle 
English,  means  a  vagabond,  or  an  idler.    {'^  Piers  the  Ploughman,'^ 
C  text  X.  213-18).     With  regard  to  the  punning  derivation  from 
"lolium,"  see  Political  Poenis,  "Against  the  Lollards": 
"  Lollardi  sunt  zisania, 
SpiruE,  vepres,  ac  lollia, 
Quce  vastant  hortum  vinece." 


LOLLARD  V  A  MIXED  MO  VEMENT  1 1 3 

it  is  akin  to  "  lullen,"  or  "  lollen,"  to  sing,  and  has  refer- 
ence to  the  singing  among  the  Lollards  of  psalms  or 
hymns.  If  this  be  the  correct  derivation  the  nickname 
would  correspond  to  our  modern  "cant." 

This  Lollardy  had  two  sides,  the  one  religious,  the- 
other  social  and  political,  and  it  seems  never  to  have 
quite  succeeded  in  keeping  these  two  sides  separate  and 
distinct.  It  was  both  as  a  traitor  and  as  a  heretic  that 
Sir  John  Oldcastle,  for  example,  who  suffered  death 
as  a  Lollard  in  1417,  was  burnt  on  the  gallows  in  St 
Giles'  Fields,  while  the  career  of  Wycliffe  himself  has 
a  strongly  political  colouring. 

So  far  as  Lollardy  in  England  was  a  religious  move- 
ment its  progress  after  Wycliffe's  death  was  soon 
arrested,  partly  by  its  lack  of  organisation  and  of  in- 
fluential leaders,  partly  by  the  withdrawal  from  it  of  the 
proprietary  classes  who  were  naturally  alarmed  at  its 
association  with  agrarian  revolution,  and  who  were  not 
slow  to  see  that  an  attack  on  Church  property  might 
readily  develop  into  an  attack  on  property  as  a  whole ; 
and  lastly,  by  the  combined  efforts  of  Church  and  Crown, 
under  Archbishop  Arundel,  to  burn  it  out  at  the  stake.* 

The  social  and  political  side  of  Lollardy  does  not  in 
any  way  concern  us  here,  but  what  does  closely  concern 
us  is  the  fact  that,  though  Church  and  State  were  so  far 
successful  that  they  frightened  the  movement  out  of 
sight,  they  did  not  ever  succeed  in  wholly  rooting  it  out. 
It  happened,  moreover,  that,  through  the  marriage  of 
Richard  II.  with  Anne  of  Bohemia,  the  teaching  of 
Wycliffe,  transmitted  over  the  seas  to  Huss  and  Jerome, 
*  The  Act  "  De  haeretico  comburendo"  was  passed  in  1401  a.d. 

n 


114  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  surviving  their  martyrdom,  re-appeared  in  due 
course  in  the  person  of  Luther,  and  was  instilled  through 
Luther's  influence  into  Tyndale. 

We  have  already  seen  how  strong  the  indications  are 
of  the  wide  diffusion  in  England  of  the  Wycliffite  Bible. 
It  may  now  be  added  that  incontrovertible  evidence 
of  the  survival  of  Lollard  tracts  and  pamphlets,  such  as 
Wycliffe's  tract  against  Transubstantiation,  called  the 
Ostiolum,  or  Wicket,  is  afforded  by  their  being  found 
included  among  the  heretical  books  whose  owners 
were  prosecuted  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  Richard 
Hun,  for  instance,  who  died  in  the  Lollard's  Tower,  was 
accused  in  15 14  of  having  in  his  possession  "the  damn- 
able works  of  Wycliffe,"  and  Foxe  mentions  another 
prosecution  where  the  specified  book  was  the  Wicket 
above-mentioned.  Further,  we  have  the  evidence  of 
Erasmus,  who  writes  in  1523  to  Adrian  VI.,  that  the 
Wycliffite  party  **  was  not  extinguished,  but  only  over- 
come " ;  and  of  Tunstall,  Bishop  of  London,  who  in  the 
same  year  writes  to  Erasmus,  "It  is  no  question  of  some 
pernicious  novelty,  it  is  that  new  arms  are  being  added  to 
the  great  band  of  Wycliffite  heretics"  Thus  it  would 
seem  that  while  doctrinal  Lollardy  ,did  not  ever,  even 
in  the  lifetime  of  Wycliffe,  attain  to  the  dimensions 
of  a  national  movement,  and  that  while  after  his  death 
it  lost  whatever  solidarity  his  own  personal  influence 
had  lent  to  it,  still  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  died 
entirely  away.  If  the  flames  were  extinguished  the 
embers  smouldered  on,  so  that  when,  in  1529,  a  royal 
proclamation  appeared  against  unorthodox  writings,  it 
is   in   no    way   surprising    to   find    that    no    particular 


WYCLIFFE  WAS  BEFORE  HIS  DAY  115 

distinction  is  drawn  between  "  Lollardies "  and   other 
"heresies  and  errors," 

This  survival  of  Lollardy  as  the  continuing  protest 
of  religious  discontent  is  sufficient  proof  that  the 
Wycliffite  attack  upon  the  medieval  Church  system  had 
failed  to  achieve  its  object.  Its  leader,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, belonged  to  the  less  popular  and  influential 
party  among  the  Schoolmen,  namely,  to  the  moderate 
Realists  or  liberal  -  conservatives,  as  opposed  to  the 
Nominalists  or  philosophical  radicals  whose  star  was 
at  that  time  largely  in  the  ascendant  on  the  Con- 
tinent. Having  regard  to  the  intellectual  backwardness 
of  the  age  it  had  been  delivered  prematurely.  It  lacked 
system  and  was  too  negative  in  character.  It  had 
depended  too  much  on  one  man.  It  had  been  with- 
out the  glow  of  religious  enthusiasm,  and  without  any 
central  principle  to  serve  its  supporters  as  a  rallying 
cry.  Something  on  the  other  hand  had  been  done  in 
the  preparation  of  the  soil,  and  something  too  in  the 
actual  sowing  of  the  seed,  but  the  time  of  harvest  was 
not  yet  come.  The  colour  and  texture  of  the  fifteenth 
century  in  England  is  not  religious  but  political.  It  is 
a  century  mainly  taken  up  with  foreign  and  civil  war, 
the  wars  with  France,  and  the  wars  of  the  Roses.  Mid- 
way through  it  the  voice  of  reason  and  common  sense 
in  dealing  with  Lollardy  makes  itself  heard  for  a 
moment  in  a  man  who  has  been  called  the  Arnold  of  his 
day,  Bishop  Pecock,  but  only  to  be  instantly  suppressed. 
Before  its  close  the  Bishops  had  more  than  recovered 
from  their  scare ;  religious  reform  seemed  to  have  been 
relegated  to  the  Greek  Calends ;  and  the  clergy,  lulled 


Ii6  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

into  fancied  security  through  their  close  alliance  with 
the  Crown,  had  fallen  torpidly  back  into  the  old  groove 
of  indifference  and  obscurantism. 

Tyndale  therefore  had  the  same  aim  and  the  same 
incentive  in  his  work  as  Wycliffe,  though  he  was  born 
into  a  very  different  age.  It  was  from  the  breakdown 
of  the  Church  as  a  moral  and  educational  agency,  and 
from  her  gross  and  persistent  neglect  of  the  spiritual 
trusts  committed  to  her  charge,  that  both  reformers  alike 
derived  their  determination  that  the  Gospel  should  be 
opened  out  through  the  medium  of  an  English  Bible  to 
the  people.  Accordingly,  in  his  preface  to  "  TJi£  Obedience  of 
a  Christian  Man  "  ( 1 528),  we  find  Tyndale  writing  thus : — 

"  Alas  !  the  curates  themselves,  for  the  most  part,  wot  no  more 
what  the  New  or  Old  Testament  meaneth  than  do  the  Turks — 
neither  care  they  but  to  mumble  so  much  every  day  as  the  pie  and 
popinjay  speak,  they  wot  not  what,  to  fill  their  bellies  withal.  If 
they  will  not  let  layman  have  the  word  of  God  in  his  mother 
tongue,  yet  let  the  priests  have  it,  which  for  the  great  part  of  them 
do  understand  no  Latin  at  all,  but  sing  and  patter  all  day  with  the 
lips  only  that  which  the  heart  understandeth  not." 

To  Tyndale's  evidence  let  us  add  a  quotation  from 
Cardinal  Bellarmine,  which  points  in  a  like  direction  : — 

"  Some  years  before  the  rise  of  the  Lutheran  heresy  there  was 
almost  an  entire  abandonment  of  equity  in  the  ecclesiastical 
judgments  ;  in  morals  no  discipline,  in  sacred  literature  no  erudi- 
tion, in  divine  things  no  reverence  :  religion  was  almost  extinct." 

But  if  as  a  religious  reformer  Tyndale  does  but 
catch  the  torch  from  Wycliffe's  hand,  we  must  not  allow 
ourselves  to  forget  that  the  two  men  are  chrono- 
logically separated  by  the  whole  interval  of  an  intel- 
lectual revolution.  It  is  impossible  to  pass  from  the 
fourteenth  to  the  sixteenth  century  and  not  to  take 


PERIOD  BETWEEN  WYCLIFFE  AND  TYNDALE     117 

account  of  the  greatest  upheaval  of  the  human  mind 
that  the  world  had  seen  since  the  introduction  of 
Christianity.  To  that  wonderful  regeneration  of 
the  West,  which  we  call  the  Renaissance,  or  the 
"  new  birth,"  no  one  date  can  be  assigned,  nor  can  its 
all-pervading  spirit  be  taken  captive  and  imprisoned  in 
any  verbal  definition.  For  its  earliest  harbingers  we 
must  go  far  back  into  the  Middle  Ages.  In  its  effects 
it  remains  in  active  operation  among  us  at  this  very 
day.  Its  rays  light  up  the  intellectual  transition  to  the 
modern  world,  a  world  which  was  no  longer  to  see  every- 
thing through  theological  glasses.  Expressed  in  terms 
of  literature,  we  call  it  the  Revival  of  Letters.  Expressed 
in  terms  of  religion,  it  is  the  Reformation.  Contrasted 
with  medievalism,  the  Renaissance  is  like  a  bright 
fresh  morning  after  a  close  and  sultry  night.  It  repre- 
sents the  change  in  men's  view  of  life  from  asceticism 
to  freedom  and  humanism  ;  from  the  monastery  to  the 
college ;  from  a  civilisation  based  on  Feudalism  and 
educated  by  the  Latin  Church,  to  a  civilisation 
educated  by  Science  and  based,  within  the  restrictions 
of  nationahty,  on  a  spiritual  inter-community  of  ideas 
and  interests. 

In  the  wake  of  the  literary  revival  by  which  this 
great  movement  was  ushered  in,  there  arose  that 
wonder-working  spirit  of  adventure  and  of  maritime 
discovery,  under  whose  influence  the  boundaries  of  the 
earth  were  pushed  back,  and  the  edifice  of  patristic  geo- 
graphy was  shattered  to  pieces.  In  1492,  Columbus  with 
the  aid  of  the  mariner's  compass  discovered  the  New 
World.     In  1497,  Vasco  da  Gama  rounded  the  Cape  of 


ii8  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Good  Hope.  In  1520,  Magellan  circumnavigated  the 
globe.  The  year  1543  is  the  date  of  the  death  of  Coperni- 
cus, whose  reading  of  the  riddle  of  the  sky  was  soon  to 
revolutionise  the  whole  science  of  astronomy,  and  with 
it  man's  ideas  of  his  physical  position  in  the  universe. 

For  our  immediate  purpose,  however,  the  primary 
points  of  interest  are :  first,  the  revival  of  letters  ;  and 
next,  the  invention  of  printing,  coupled  as  that  inven- 
tion was  with  the  introduction  into  Europe  of  the 
manufacture  of  cheap  paper. 

Dates,  as  we  are  all  but  too  well  aware,  are  but  dry 
things  at  the  best,  but  in  a  period  such  as  that  which 
we  have  now  reached  they  are  almost  indispensable. 
It  was  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  in 
1453  which  drove  Greek  scholars  westward,  just  at  the 
time  when  the  appetite  for  the  re-discovered  classics 
was  growing  keen.  The  necessary  literary  apparatus 
for  opening  out  a  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Scriptures  soon  began  to  be  brought  into  the  field. 
The  public  teaching  of  Greek  was  introduced  into 
the  University  of  Paris  in  1458.  The  earliest  Greek 
grammar  was  published  in  1476,  and  the  earliest 
Hebrew  grammar  in  1503.  Among  the  first  products 
of  the  printing  press  was  the  Gutenberg  (or  Mazarin) 
Bible  in  or  about  the  year  1455.  In  1470  Caxton 
introduced  printing  into  England.  The  first  Hebrew 
Lexicon  dates  from  1506,  the  first  Greek  Lexicon  from 
1480.  Grocyn,  who  had  learnt  Greek  in  Italy,  was 
its  earliest  teacher  in  Oxford  in  1492.  In  1488 
appeared  the  first  printed  Hebrew  Bible,  and  in  15 16 
the   first   printed    New  Testament  by  Erasmus.     1520 


THE  FATHER  OF  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE        119 

is  the  date  of  the  famous  Complutensian  Polyglot* 
Before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  some  eighty 
editions  of  the  Latin  Bible  had  been  published  in 
Europe,  and  national  versions  of  the  entire  Bible  were 
circulating  in  German,  Italian,  French,  Danish,  Dutch, 
Russian,  Slavonic,  Bohemian,  and  Spanish.  But  an 
English  printed  Bible  had  yet  to  come. 

For  that  great  gift,  bought  for  his  country  at  the 
price  of  his  blood,  England  has  to  thank  Tyndale,  a 
man  who,  if  he  had  "the  defect  of  his  qualities,"  is 
surely  one  of  the  noblest  figures  in  the  whole  annals 
of  the  Reformation.  If  Luther  represents  for  us  the 
splendid  enthusiasm  of  the  tim.e,  Erasmus  its  scholar- 
ship and  wit,  and  Rabelais  its  joyousness  of  humour, 
there  is  no  one  who  more  worthily  embodies  the 
intensity  of  its  religious  seriousness  than  he  who 
shares  with  Aidan  the  title  of  the  "Apostle  of 
England,"  William  Tyndale. 

Tyndale  is  the  true  father  of  our  present  English 
Bible.  He  is  so  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he 
neither  originated  the  idea  of  a  popular  version,  nor 
was  the  first  to  make  one.  In  these  respects  the  glory 
rests  with  his  predecessor,  Wycliffe.  But  the  English 
of  the  fourteenth  century  is  not  our  English,  and 
Wycliffe's  Bible  is  not  a  translation  at  first  hand,  but 
only  a  translation  of  the  Latin  Bible. 

*  This  Polyglot  Bible  derives  its  name  from  Compiutum,  the 
ancient  name  of  Alcala,  where  a  university  was  founded  in  1 500  by 
Cardinal  Ximenes.  It  was  in  six  folio  volumes,  and  contained 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek  texts,  the  Septuagint,  the  Vulgate,  and  the 
Chaldee  paraphrase  of  the  Pentateuch,  with  a  Latin  translation  ; 
Greek  and  Hebrew  grammars,  and  a  Hebrew  dictionary. 


I20  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

For  felicity  of  diction,  and  for  dignity  of  rhythm, 
Tyndale  never  has   been  and  never  can  be  surpassed. 
The  conception  of  the  Bible  as  essentially  the  people's 
book  came  down  to  him  as  we  have  seen  from  Wycliffe, 
but  his  splendid  embodiment  of  that  conception  in  the 
popular  English  of  his  own  day  is  the  work  of  his  indivi- 
dual genius.     Far  from  vulgarising  the  Bible  by  lowering 
his  standard  of  language  down  to  the  popular  level  (as 
though  a  man  should  descend  to  render  Shakespeare's 
Comedies  into  the  dialect  of  the  modern  farce),  he  lifted 
the  common  language,  in  a  true  nobility  of  homeliness,  up 
to  the  sublime  level  of  the  Bible.     He  worked,  like  a  sane 
and  sound   scholar,  on  the  principles  of  grammar  and 
philology.     He  endeavoured,  in  a  spirit  of  unpedantic 
sincerity  and  conscientiousness,  to   find    out   what   it 
was  that   each   sacred  writer   had   meant   to   say,  and 
then   to   say  it   in   plain   and  vigorous  Saxon-English 
with  all  the  idiomatic  simplicity,  and  grace,  and  stateli- 
ness  which   characterise   the   Authorised   Version,  and 
which  our  latest  revisers  might  with  advantage  have  been 
more  zealous  than  they  have  been  to  emulate  and  to  pre- 
serve.    For  in  the  tone  of  our  English  revisions  there 
is   abundant   evidence   of  how   much   we   owe   to   the 
spell  and  charm  of  the  literary  type  presented  to  suc- 
cessive workers  from  the  very  beginning  as  their  model, 
and  of  the  truth  of  the  old  Horatian  maxim  : — 

"  Quo  semel  est  imbuta  recens  servabit  odorem 
Testa  diu."  {Epist  I.  ii.,  70.) 

"  The  perfume  that  was  given  it  when  new 
Clings  to  the  earthen  vessel  long  years  through." 

Tyndale  did  not  live  to  translate  the  entire  Bible. 


TYN DALE'S  WORK  INCOMPLETE  121 

If  we  include  the  MS.  which  he  left  in  the  hands  of 
his  literary  executor,  John  Rogers,  we  have  from  his 
pen  : — 

I.  The  Old  Testament  as  far  as  2  Chronicles, 
inclusive. 

II.  The  Book  of  Jonah. 

III.  "The  Epistles  out  of  the  Old  Testament  which 
are  read  in  the  Church  after  the  use  of  Salisbury ; " 
comprising  various  passages  from  the  Prophetical  Books 
and  from  the  Apocrypha, 

IV.  The  New  Testament. 

It  has  been  estimated  that,  of  Tyndale's  work  as 
above  specified,  our  Bibles  retain  at  the  present  day 
something  like  eighty  per  cent,  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  ninety  per  cent,  in  the  New.  If  this  estimate 
may  be  accepted  no  grander  tribute  could  be  paid  to 
the  industry,  scholarship,  and  genius  of  the  pioneer 
whose  indomitable  resolution  enabled  him  to  per- 
severe in  labours  prolonged  through  twelve  long  years 
of  exile  from  the  land  that  in  his  own  words  he  so 
"loved  and  longed  for,"  with  the  practical  certainty 
of  a  violent  death  staring  him  all  the  while  in  the 
face. 

The  life  of  this  gifted  translator  may  be  divided 
into  the  four  following  periods  : — 

First,  his  period  of  training  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge. Tyndale's  university  life  must  at  least  have 
occupied  the  eleven  years  between  15 10  and  1521,  and 
very  possibly  it  may  have  been  of  still  longer  duration, 
seeing  that  he  may  have  gone  up  to  Oxford  even 
earlier  than  15 10. 


122  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Secondly,  his  residence  in  Gloucestershire  as  private 
chaplain  to  Sir  John  Walsh  from  1521  to  1523. 

Thirdly,  his  London  life  of  nearly  a  year  in  the 
house  of  Humphrey  Munmouth  of  Allhallows,  Barking. 

Lastly,  his  life  and  work  on  the  Continent,  between 
1524  and  1536,  both  as  a  translator  and  also  as  the 
most  prominent  and  powerful  controversial  English 
writer,  next  to  More,  of  his  day. 

With  his  controversial  writings,  though  they  are 
of  the  first  importance  for  the  understanding  of  Tyn- 
dale's  doctrinal  views,  we  are  here  only  so  far  concerned 
as  they  served  to  intensify  the  hostility  that  was  excited 
by  the  appearance  of  his  New  Testament,  considered 
as  it  was  to  bear  the  taint  of  heresy. 

Speaking  generally,  it  may  be  said  that  up  to  the 
year  1523  Tyndale  remained  more  or  less  the  disciple 
of  his  earliest  instructors,  John  Colet  and  Erasmus. 
Thenceforward  he  felt  very  strongly  the  influence  of 
Luther,  and  we  need  hardly  remind  our  readers  that 
between  Erasmus,  the  unimpassioned  man  of  letters, 
the  ironical  critic  and  "  candid  friend "  of  the  Church, 
and  Luther,  the  impulsive  and  passionate  dogmatist, 
there  lies  the  deep  chasm  of  the  Augustinian,  or,  as 
we  now  call  it,  the  Calvinistic,  theology. 

It  is  a  strange  thought  that,  in  the  venerable  and 
apparently  interminable  controversy  which  for  so  many 
ages  has  torn  the  thinking  world  asunder, — the  contro- 
versy between  free-will  and  necessity, — it  should  have 
been  from  the  ranks  not  of  the  vindicators  of  man's 
spiritual  initiative,  but  from  the  ranks  of  the  rigid 
Predestinarians,  that  the  great  religious  reformers  are 


FOUR  PERIODS  IN  HIS  LIFE  123 

seen  emerging.  That  they  mighj:  gain  the  spiritual 
force  and  vigour  which  were  indispensable  for  the  task 
to  which  they  had  set  their  hands,  they  had  first  of  all 
to  be  inspired  with  a  conviction  of  the  mysterious  and 
irresistible  inner  working  of  the  grace  of  God.  To  take 
but  one  illustration,  Luther,  whose  name  suggested 
this  brief  digression  ;  Luther, — the  Arminius  of  modem 
Germany,  the  man  to  whom  no  small  part  of  Europe 
owes  its  moral  freedom, — Luther  himself  was  a 
thorough-going  theological  fatalist. 

William  Tyndale  was  of  Gloucestershire  birth,  but 
at  what  place  he  was  born,  and  in  what  year,  is  not 
certainly  known.  Probably  it  may  have  been  at 
Slymbridge,  near  Berkeley,  and  not  later  than  1490. 

His  comparatively  brief  span  of  life  comprises  a 
period  rich  in  great  events.  Within  it  are  included 
"  the  tragedy  of  Luther  "  ;  the  career  of  the  brilliant  and 
cosmopolitan  Erasmus  ;  the  rise  and  fall  of  Wolsey  ;  the 
sack  of  Rome  by  the  forces  of  Charles  V. ;  the  ecclesias- 
tical breach  between  England  and  Rome  ;  the  submission 
of  the  clergy  to  the  Crown  ;  the  "  reign  of  terror  "  under 
Thomas  Cromwell ;  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  ; 
the  endeavours  of  Fisher,  Colet,  More,  and  Erasmus, 
to  bring  about  a  peaceful  reform  of  abuses  without 
breaking  up  the  religious  u'tiity  of  Christendom  ;  the 
publication  of  Calvin's  "  Institutes " ;  the  adoption  of 
the  Reformation  by  Geneva ;  and  the  first  appearance 
of  an  English  New  Testament,  which,  notwithstanding 
every  attempt  made  to  suppress  it,  was  soon  to  be 
followed  by  a  complete  Bible  circulating  with  the 
express  sanction  of  the  King  himself 


124  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

For  Tyndale's  early  history  our  only  authority  is 
Foxe.     From  him  we  learn  that — 

"William  Tyndale  was  .  .  .  brought  up  from  a  child  in  the 
University  of  Oxford,  where  he  grew  and  increased  as  well  in  the 
knowledge  of  tongues  and  other  liberal  arts,  as  especially  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  whereunto  his  mind  was  singularly 
addicted,  insomuch  that  he,  lying  then  at  Magdalen  Hall,  read 
privily  to  certain  students  and  fellows  of  Magdalen  College  some 
parcel  of  divinity,  instructing  them  in  the  knowledge  and  truth  of 
the  Scriptures." 

The  expression  "  from  a  child "  is  hardly  what  we 
should  have  expected,  and  it  is  moreover  far  too  in- 
definite to  be  of  service.  There  is  nothing  improbable, 
however,  in  supposing  that  Tyndale's  early  teachers 
thought  him  a  lad  of  promise,  and  that  his  exceptional 
turn  for  languages  had  already  begun  to  discover  itself. 
If  so,  he  may  well  have  gone  up  to  Oxford  before  the 
average  age,  and  perhaps  such  a  conjecture  gains 
additional  plausibility  from  the  fact  that  Magdalen  Hall 
was  a  place  so  conspicuous  for  classical  study  under  the 
auspices  of  Grocyn,  Linacre,  and  William  Latimer,  that 
it  went  by  the  suggestive  name  of  "  Grammar  Hall." 

The  authorities  give  1 5 1 5  as  the  date  of  Tyndale's 
M.A.  degree,  after  obtaining  which  he  left  Oxford  for  the 
sister  University  of  Cambridge,  though  for  what  reason 
Foxe  does  not  say.  The  usual  explanation  is  that  he 
was  attracted  thither  by  his  desire  to  hear  Erasmus,  who 
was  the  Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity  and  also 
Greek  Reader,  but  this  explanation  is  at  issue  with  the 
known  dates  in  the  case,  for  Erasmus  left  Cambridge 
before  1514.  And  this  same  troublesome  chronology 
must  be  suffered,  we  fear,  to  deprive  us  of  the  pleasure 


WILLIAM  TYNDALE. 
{From  an  Engraving  by  W.  HrMPHRYS. 


[Face  p.  125. 


TYNDALE  AT  OXFORD  AND  CAMBRIDGE      125 

of  picturing  the  young  Bible-student  listening  while  at 
Oxford  to  Colet's  famous  lectures  on  St  Paul's  Epistles, 
inasmuch  as  Colet  was  back  in  London  in  1505,  and 
may  probably  have  left  Oxford  during  1504. 

It  is  probable  that  Tyndale  was  driven  from  Oxford 
by  the  "  Trojan  "  party,  who  were  labouring  with  so  much 
diligence  to  suppress  the  "  Greeks  "  of  the  New  Learn- 
ing, and  it  may  also  be  that  the  Bible  readings  to  which 
Foxe  markedly  refers  had  got  him  into  trouble  with  the 
University  doctors.  But  whether  our  future  translator 
did  or  did  not  actually  listen  to  Colet's  lectures  at 
Oxford,  or  to  those  of  Erasmus  at  Cambridge,  is  a 
matter  of  no  great  practical  importance.  It  will  suffice 
us  if  we  can  picture  in  our  minds  the  formative  influ- 
ences under  which  his  mind  was  maturing  during  the 
eleven  critical  years  when  the  youth  was  growing  mto 
the  man. 

We  know  that  he  had  a  gift  for  languages  ;  we  know 
also  that,  as  is  shown  by  the  Bible  readings  which  he 
organised  at  his  Hall,  he  was  a  diligent  student  of 
Scripture.  Even  if  he  may  have  missed  the  privilege 
of  hearing  Colet's  actual  voice,  he  must  in  any  case 
have  been  breathing  for  several  years  an  intellectual 
atmosphere  charged  with  the  spirit  of  that  remarkable 
man's  teaching.     What,  then,  was  that  spirit  ? 

Towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  Grocyn 
and  Linacre,  just  returned  from  Italy,  had  begun  to 
teach  Greek  in  Oxford.  It  was  Colet  who  carried  on 
their  work.  He  represented  the  influence  of  the 
"  New  Learning "  as  reflected  in  a  naturally  religious 
mind.     If  tradition  may  be  trusted,   he  had  while   in 


126  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Florence  come  under  the  magic  spell  of  Savonarola.  He 
delivered  at  Oxford  a  course  of  lectures  on  St  Paul, 
by  means  of  which  he  sought  to  revive  once  more  the 
historical  and  devotional  study  of  the  Bible,  a  study 
which,  since  the  great  days  of  Bishop  Grosseteste  of 
Lincoln,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  had  become  all 
but  obsolete.  He  wished  to  make  the  Christian  faith 
a  practical  thing,  a  working  principle  quickening  the 
spiritual  life.  He  threw  his  whole  soul  into  the 
endeavour  to  give  reality  and  freshness  to  the 
apostolic  letters  by  placing  his  listeners  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  position  of  those  whom  St  Paul  was 
addressing.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Tyndale's 
receptive  mind  must  have  felt  the  full  force  of  this 
novel  departure  from  the  old  scholastic  methods  of 
interpretation. 

From  Oxford  Tyndale  carried  with  him  to  Cambridge 
a  sound  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin,  together  with 
an  interest  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  intensified 
by  a  sense  of  that  quality  of  unaging  truth  and  nearness 
which  the  teaching  of  Colet  had  revealed  in  them. 
The  great  Erasmus  would  at  this  time  just  have  left 
Cambridge,  where  he  had  found  the  atmosphere,  both 
physical  and  intellectual,  too  thoroughly  uncongenial  for 
a  prolonged  stay.  Of  the  New  Learning  in  its  intellectual 
aspect  Erasmus  was  the  very  incarnation.  He  brought 
the  dry  dispassionate  light  of  a  highly  educated  common 
sense  to  bear  on  the  problems  of  the  life  around  him. 
Both  Colet  and  More  were  his  intimate  friends.  Unlike 
Colet  in  many  ways,  Erasmus  was  heartily  at  one  with 
him  in  the  desire  to  redeem  men  from  the  curse  of 


COLET  AND  ERASMUS  127 

ignorance.  He  was  at  one  with  him  also  in  the  con- 
viction that  the  Bible  should  be  faithfully  translated 
and  made  generally  accessible.  In  the  "  Exhortation  " 
with  which  he  prefaced  his  New  Testament  he  writes 
as  follows  : — 

"  I  totally  dissent  from  those  who  are  unwilling  that  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  translated  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  should  be  read  by 
private  individuals.  I  would  wish  even  all  women  to  read  the 
Gospel,  and  the  Epistles  of  St  Paul.  I  wish  they  were  translated 
into  all  languages  of  the  people.  I  wish  that  the  husbandman 
might  sing  parts  of  them  at  his  plough,  and  the  weaver  at  his 
shuttle,  and  that  the  traveller  might  beguile  with  their  narration 
the  weariness  of  his  way." 

He  saw — no  man  saw  it  more  clearly — that  the 
densest  ignorance  prevailed  as  to  what  the  Bible 
really  was,  as  to  what  Christianity  was  meant  to 
teach,  as  to  what  the  greatest  of  the  early  Fathers 
had  written,  and  as  to  all  that  we  had  to  learn  from  the 
wisdom  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

During  his  residence  at  Queen's  he  was  hard  at 
work,  day  after  day,  up  in  his  rooms  in  the  old  tower, 
in  preparing  for  the  Press  a  volume  which  was  to 
prove  of  immeasurable  importance  in  fertilising  the 
parched  fields  of  scholastic  theology.  That  work 
reached  the  University  of  Cambridge  in  15 16,  which  was 
probably  Tyndale's  second  year  of  residence.  It  is  not 
often  that  two  intimate  friends  have  enjoyed  the  dis- 
tinction of  each  producing  in  the  self-same  year  a  book 
which  is  destined  to  achieve  literary  immortality. 
Such,  however,  was  the  case  with  Erasmus  and  More. 
Erasmus'  New  Testament  and  More's  "  Utopia  "  *  both 

*  See  Brewer's  //enry  VIII,  (1884),  vol.  i.,  p.  285  ;  and  See- 
bohm's  Oxford  Reformers^  p.  321. 


128  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

saw  the  light  together,  and  each  in  its  own  way  these 
two  works  mark  the  new  and  Hberal  spirit  in  which 
the  foremost  men  of  the  day  were  endeavouring  to  deal 
with  its  changed  conditions. 

In  the  same  year  also,  copies  would  have  been 
circulating,  in  the  common  rooms  of  the  Universities, 
of  that  notable  proclamation  of  Indulgences  by  Pope 
Leo,  the  main  object  of  which  was  to  raise  money  for 
the  building  fund  of  St  Peter's.  In  1516,  too,  was 
published  Erasmus'  great  edition  of  Jerome,  the  author 
of  the  Latin  Vulgate. 

The  circulation  of  a  New  Testament  in  Greek  would 
naturally  be  hailed  as  giving  speedy  promise  of  a  version 
in  English,  and  it  was  Erasmus'  Greco-Latin  edition 
which  would  thus  have  afforded  the  main  subject  for 
discussion  among  such  men  as  Richard  Barnes,  Thomas 
Cranmer,  Hugh  Latimer,  Miles  Coverdale,  Thomas 
Bilney,  and  William  Tyndale,  who  were  all  probably  in 
residence  when  it  first  appeared.  The  volume  included 
the  Greek  text  and  a  new  Latin  translation  by  Erasmus 
in  parallel  columns.  It  comprised  also  a  series  of  clear 
annotations  explaining  various  changes  of  reading  as 
compared  with  the  Vulgate,  and  a  preparatory  "  Exhor- 
tation," as  earnest  as  it  was  powerful,  in  which  Erasmus 
challenged  both  the  neo-Paganism  of  the  Italian  school 
and  the  fossilised  pedantry  of  the  monkish  divines. 

It  would  be  a  grave  misconception  to  measure  the 
importance  of  this  earliest  Greek  New  Testament  by 
its  merely  textual  or  critical  value.  To  such  value 
it  has  but  little  claim.*     The  few  manuscripts  which 

*  Erasmus  himself  describes  his  first  edition  as  "  precipitatum 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  OF  ERASMUS         129 

Erasmus  professed  to  collate  were  neither  ancient  nor  of 
high  authority.  But  though  he  did  nothing  to  solve  the 
critical  problem,  he  did  much  in  that  he  brought  it 
forward  for  solution.  The  extraordinary  effect  of  this 
book,  followed  as  it  soon  was  by  his  famous  "  Para- 
phrases" of  most  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures, 
was  due  to  other  causes. 

Hitherto  the  verbal  inspiration  and  sanctity  of  the 
Latin  Vulgate  had  been  accepted  without  question. 
Now,  for  the  first  time,  it  was  deliberately  challenged 
and  impugned.  The  challenge,  moreover,  was  not  from 
some  obscure  innovator  who  might  with  safety  be 
ignored.  It  came  from  the  most  brilliant  man  of 
letters  of  the  century.  It  came  from  the  author  of  the 
''Adages:'  of  the  ''Praise  of  Folly"  of  "The  Pocket 
Dagger  of  a  Christian  Man"  books  which  were  already 
household  words  all  over  Europe.  It  announced  a  new 
mode  of  Biblical  interpretation  which  installed  history 
and  philology  in  the  place  of  tradition  and  dogma, 
and  which  claimed  for  the  sacred  writings,  as  Tyndale 
on  his  side  claimed  for  them  a  few  years  later,  that 
their  meaning  was  what  they  really  said,  and  not 
what  they  might,  allegorically  or  mystically,  have  been 
supposed  to  say.  In  our  own  time,  perhaps,  men  might 
have  experienced  something  of  the  same  sort  of  flutter 
of  excitement  if  in  the  fulness  of  his  intellectual  powers 
Mr  Gladstone  had  come  before  the  world  as  the  author 
of  "  Ecce  Homo." 

verius  quam  editum."  The  truth  is  that  he  hurried  the  work 
on  with  unscholarly  haste  so  as  to  forestall  the  New  Testament 
which  was  in  course  of  printing  for  the  Polyglot  Bible  of  Cardinal 
Ximenes. 

I 


igo  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Erasmus  was  a  man  of  peace,  and  to  the  day  of  his 
death  he  beheved  himself  to  be  a  loyal  Catholic.  It  was 
therefore  in  no  spirit  of  irony  that  he  dedicated  his  New 
Testament,  by  permission,  to  the  Pope.  Like  the 
English  reformers  of  the  school  of  the  New  Learn- 
ing he  pinned  his  faith  to  the  advancement  of  know- 
ledge, and  of  liberty  of  thought,  as  sufficient  in 
themselves  for  the  working  out  of  the  peaceful  regenera- 
tion of  a  Church  to  whose  abuses  no  one  was  more 
alive  than  himself  But  it  was  not  to  be.  In  the 
autumn  of  15 17  there  suddenly  leaped  out  the  spark 
which  fired  the  smouldering  discontent  of  Germany. 
When,  on  All  Saints'  Eve,  October  31st,  Luther 
affixed  his  famous  Theses  against  Indulgences  to  the 
gates  of  the  parish  church  of  Wittenberg,  the  religious 
destiny  of  Western  Europe  hung  for  the  moment 
upon  a  thread.  What  might  have  happened,  if  Charles 
V.  and  the  Papal  Curia  had  been  minded  to  meet  the 
Reformation  half  way,  who  is  there  that  can  tell  ?  It  is 
no  part  of  our  present  task  to  follow  Luther's  fortunes, 
but,  if  we  wish  to  understand  the  opposition  which  we 
shall  find  Tyndale  encountering  by-and-by,  we  must 
neither  lose  sight  of  his  early  relation  to  Erasmus  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  of  his  admiration  for  Luther  on  the 
other. 

Before  he  left  Cambridge  at  the  end  of  1521  the 
Pope's  bull,  "  Exsurge  Domine,"  had  been  tossed  into 
the  fire,  the  English  seaports  had  begun  to  receive  what 
was  soon  to  become  a  continuous  stream  of  Lutheran 
literature,  and  the  bright  visions  of  those  who  had  been 
looking    forward   to   the    self- reformation   of  a   united 


TYNDALE  AS  PRIVATE  TUTOR  131 

Catholic  Church  faded  sorrowfully  away.  It  would  be 
an  injustice  to  the  party  of  Sir  Thomas  More  not  to 
remember  that,  after  the  Diet  of  Worms,  they  stood  in 
the  shadow  of  a  great  fear,  namely,  the  fear  which  they 
not  unnaturally  entertained  that  the  spread  of  Luther- 
anism  in  England  would  involve  anarchy  and  schism, 
the  dislocation  of  religious  unity,  and  the  dislocation 
of  social  order. 

But  it  is  time  for  us  to  return  to  Tyndale  himself. 

If  we  are  ignorant  of  the  reasons  which  took  him  to 
Cambridge,  we  are  no  better  off  with  respect  to  the 
reasons  which  took  him  away.  Perhaps  he  was  too 
poor  to  stay  up  without  a  fellowship.  Perhaps  he  felt  a 
call  towards  a  wider  career  than  the  University  could 
well  afford  him.     We  cannot  say. 

At  any  rate,  from  the  end  of  the  year  1521  till  1523, 
we  find  him  acting  as  private  chaplain  to  Sir  John 
Walsh,  in  Gloucestershire,  and  as  the  nominal  tutor  of 
his  boys,  of  whom  the  eldest  was  not  yet  six  years  old. 
Their  home  was  in  the  Manor  House  of  Little  Sodbury, 
some  twelve  miles  north-east  of  Bristol,  and  they  were 
people  of  recognised  position  in  the  county.  They  kept 
open  house,  and  their  hospitable  table  was  not  without 
its  attractions  for  the  abbots  and  divinity- doctors  of  the 
neighbourhood. 

It  so  happens  that  we  have  good  evidence  of  the 
condition  into  which  the  local  representatives  of  the 
"ecclesia  docens,"  or  "teaching  church,"  had  allowed 
themselves  to  fall.  A  generation  later  than  the  time 
with  which  we  are  dealing,  Hooper,  then  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,    made   a   visitation    in    his    diocese.       He 


132  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

examined,  so  he  reports  to  Cecil,  3 1 1  clergy.  Of  these 
he  found  no  less  than  168  unable  to  repeat  the  Ten 
Commandments,  31  ignorant  of  whence  the  said  Deca- 
logue came,  40  who  could  not  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  about  the  same  number  who  did  not  even  know  to 
whom  it  should  be  ascribed. 

Nor  was  mere  ignorance  the  only  or  the  worst 
charge  which  could  be  brought  against  the  clergy : — 

"  What  man  of  real  piety,''  cries  Erasmus,  in  the  preface  to  his 
new  edition  of  the  '"''  Enchindion,^''  "  does  not  perceive,  with  sighs,  that 
this  is  far  the  most  corrupt  of  all  ages  ?  When  did  ever  tyranny 
or  avarice  prevail  more  widely  or  with  greater  impunity  ?  When 
was  more  importance  ever  attached  to  mere  ceremonies .''  When 
did  iniquity  abound  with  more  licentiousness  ?  When  was  charity 
so  cold  ?  What  is  read,  what  is  said,  what  is  heard,  what  is  de- 
creed, except  that  which  savours  of  ambition  and  gain  ?  " 

Or  let  us  listen  to  Hugh  Latimer,  preaching  to  an 
assembly  of  bishops  at  Paul's  Cross  : — 

"  Who  is  the  most  diligent  prelate  in  all  England  ?  I  will  tell 
you — it  is  the  devil.  Of  all  the  pack  of  them  that  have  cure,  the 
devil  shall  go  for  my  money,  for  he  ordereth  his  business.  Where- 
fore, you  unpreaching  prelates,  learn  of  the  devil  diligence.  If  you 
will  not  learn  of  God,  for  shame  learn  of  the  devil." 

Religion  and  morality  seemed  to  have  parted 
company.  Rites  and  ceremonies  were  not  treated  as 
mere  adjuncts  and  aids  to  religion,  they  had  practically 
become  substitutes  for  it.  The  man  who  went  regularly 
to  confession  and  mass,  and  who  occasionally  made  a 
pilgrimage  to  some  venerated  shrine  and  left  a  sub- 
stantial offering  behind  him,  had  done  all  that  was 
required  of  him.  The  Church,  in  fact,  was  organised 
less  as  an  institution  for  spreading  the  teaching  and 


HIS  CONTROVERSIES  WITH  THE  CLERGY     133 

inculcating  the  spirit  of  its  Founder,  than  as  a  vast 
system  of  insurance  against  the  material  penalties  of 
sin. 

At  Little  Sodbury,  as  elsewhere,  the  "crisis  in  the 
Church"  was  the  leading  topic  of  the  day,  and  it 
appears  that  in  the  argumentative  discussions  which 
from  time  to  time  enlivened  Sir  John's  table,  the 
ecclesiastical  magnates  who  were  dining  with  him 
found  the  resident  chaplain  an  extremely  objection- 
able person.  "  As  these  men,"  we  are  told,  "  and 
Master  Tyndale  did  vary  in  opinions  and  judgments, 
Master  Tyndale  would  show  them  on  the  book  the  places 
by  open  and  manifest  Scripture."  That  must  have 
been  a  procedure  which  was  felt  to  be  in  the  highest 
degree  inconvenient. 

One  day,  when  these  theological  tiltings  had  been 
going  on  for  some  time.  Lady  Walsh  asked  her  chaplain 
to  explain  why  he  thought  that  she  ought  to  attach 
more  weight  to  his  views  than  to  those  of  the  notables 
who  came  to  her  house,  and  who  were  presumably  men 
of  some  local  reputation.  To  which  artless  inquiry 
Tyndale  made  no  immediate  reply,  though  for  all  that 
he  had  a  reply  in  his  mind. 

Obviously  it  was  not  meet  for  an  insignificant 
chaplain  to  measure  himself  with  a  great  county  lady. 
Yet  perhaps  he  might  overawe  her  if  he  could  only 
bring  up  some  heavy  theological  artillery  to  bear  on 
her  position.  It  would  be  no  disgrace  for  her  to 
lower  her  colours  to  Erasmus. 

So  he  set  quietly  to  work  to  translate  the  "  Enchiri- 
dion "   or  "Pocket  Dagger  of  a  Christian   Soldier"   for 


134  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

her  ladyship's  personal  benefit.  Erasmus  had  just  re- 
published this  tract  with  a  new  preface,  from  which  we 
have  already  quoted,  in  which  the  clergy  of  all  ranks 
were  vigorously  chastised  for  their  many  delinquencies. 

"  I  wrote,"  he  says,  "  to  display  neither  genius  nor  eloquence, 
but  simply  to  counteract  the  vulgar  error  of  those  who  think  that 
religion  consists  in  ceremonies,  and  in  worse  than  Jewish  observ- 
ances, while  they  neglect  what  really  pertains  to  piety." 

This  may  be  accepted  as  a  very  fair  description  of  a 
little  work  which,  unless  Erasmus  had  been  its  author, 
would  scarcely  have  excited  the  universal  attention 
that  it  did.  For  the  aim  of  it  is  simply  to  make 
religion  of  practical  use  in  the  living  of  life,  and  to  catch 
the  inner  spirit  of  Christianity,  a  spirit  of  devotion  not 
so  much  to  a  creed  as  to  a  Person. 

"Then  did  Tyndale  put  into  English  a  book  called,  as  I  re- 
member, '•'■Enchiridion  Militis  Chrisiiani"  the  which  he  delivered 
to  his  master  and  lady.  And  after  they  had  read  that  book  those 
great  prelates  were  no  more  so  often  called  to  the  house,  nor,  when 
they  came,  had  they  the  cheer  nor  countenance  as  they  were  wont 
to  have  ;  the  which  they  did  well  perceive,  and  that  it  was  by  the 
means  of  Master  Tyndale,  and  at  last  came  no  more  there."  * 

By  employing  his  leisure  in  preaching  to  crowded 
audiences  in  Bristol,  it  was  not  long  before  Tyndale 
provoked  a  summons  before  the  diocesan  Chancellor, 
a  man  of  violent  temper,  who  "  reviled  and  rated  him 
as  if  he  had  been  a  dog,"  and  though  no  immediately 
serious  consequences  followed,  still  our  chaplain  was  set 
a-thinking. 

How  had  it  come  about  that  the  Church  was  on  one 

*  Quoted  in  Foxe's  Acts  and  Monuments. 


RESOLVE  TO  TRANSLATE  NEW  TESTAMENT    135 

side  and  the  Bible  on  the  other  ? — Revolving  the  matter 
in  his  mind,  he  went  to  take  counsel  of  "a  certain 
doctor  that  had  been  an  old  chancellor  to  a  bishop," 
and  who,  it  has  been  plausibly  conjectured,  was  the 
Oxford  scholar,  William  Latimer.  This  ex-chancellor, 
who  was  a  votary  of  the  New  Learning,  was  frankness 
itself  "  Do  you  not  know,"  he  said,  "  that  the  Pope 
is  very  antichrist?  I  have  been  an  officer  of  his,  but 
I  have  given  it  up  and  defy  him  and  all  his  works." 

It  is  probably  to  this  conversation  that  Tyndale's 
final  determination  to  translate  the  New  Testament 
may  be  referred.  It  was  through  reading  the  Bible  that 
he  himself  had  come  to  his  present  mind.  If  the  same 
means  were  laid  open  for  the  benefit  of  others,  and 
if,  instead  of  "expositions  clean  contrary  unto  the 
meaning,"  the  Scripture  were  oncq  "  plainly  laid  before 
their  eyes  in  their  mother  tongue,"  they  too  might  be 
turned  from  the  service  of  "  antichrist "  to  a  higher  and 
better  service.  Tyndale  did  not  keep  his  design  secret, 
but,  while  communing  and  disputing  with  a  certain 
learned  man  he  drove  him  to  that  issue  that  he  said, 
*'  We  were  better  without  God's  laws  than  without  the 
Pope's  " — Master  Tyndale,  hearing  that,  answered  him, 
"  I  defy  the  Pope  and  all  his  laws."  And  then  follows 
the  passage  which  has  been  so  often  quoted : 

"  If  God  spare  my  life,  ere  many  years  I  will  cause  a  boy  that 
driveth  the  plough  shall  know  more  of  the  Scripture  than  thou 
dost." 

Now  that  his  contraband  design  had  been  divulged 
he  had  become  more  than  ever  a  marked  man,  and  it 


136  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

was  impossible  for  him,  even  under  the  protection  of 
Sir  John  Walsh,  to  keep  a  whole  skin  in  Gloucester- 
shire. He  resolved,  therefore,  to  throw  up  his  position 
at  Little  Sodbury  and  to  try  what  could  be  done  with 
friendly  assistance  in  London. 

About  July  or  August  1523,  in  the  middle  of  the 
excitement  caused  by  the  angry  dissolution  of  a  Parlia- 
ment that  had  made  so  bold  as  to  object  to  an  arbitrary 
property-tax  of  four  shillings  in  the  pound,  he  arrived 
in  the  capital,  armed  with  a  letter  of  introduction  from 
his  patron.  Sir  John,  to  Sir  Harry  Guildford,  Controller 
of  the  Household,  a  man  of  considerable  learning,  who 
was  on  terms  of  friendship  with  Erasmus  and  a  personal 
favourite  withal  of  the  King.  It  was  not,  however,  to 
the  Controller  that  Tyndale  would  have  to  look  for  the 
patronage  that  he  needed.  It  was  to  the  Lord  Bishop 
of  London.  If  the  New  Testament  was,  as  he  then 
intended,  to  be  translated  in  England,  he  must  begin 
by  obtaining  episcopal  sanction.  Without  this  protec- 
tion no  printer  would  venture  to  undertake  the  risk  of 
passing  his  sheets  through  the  press.  In  addition  he 
needed  a  shelter  over  his  head,  a  quiet  room  to  work  in, 
and  food  ;  modest  and  simple  requirements,  it  is  true,  but 
necessaries  which  a  friendless  priest  in  a  great  capital 
might  yet  find  some  difficulty  in  procuring. 

The  See  of  London  in  1523  was  held  by  Cuthbert 
Tunstall,  who  had  studied  as  an  undergraduate  both 
at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  had  taken  his  degree 
in  Italy.  He  was  known  as  a  sound  scholar  in  Greek 
and  Hebrew,  and  as  a  friend  of  the  New  Learning,  but 
he  was  strongly  anti-Lutheran.     Now  it  was  in   1520 


TYNDALE  AND  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON      137 

that  Luther  had  been  excommunicated,  and  during 
the  winter  of  15  20-1  Tunstall,  not  yet  a  bishop,  was 
living  at  Worms,  a  city  which  was  soon  to  be  the  scene 
of  the  great  Diet.  While  there  he  wrote  urging  Eras- 
mus to  exert  his  influence  in  arresting,  or  at  least 
retarding,  the  Reformation  movement.  In  1521  Luther, 
already  condemned  by  the  Pope,  was  placed  under  the 
ban  of  the  Empire.  In  that  year  also  Henry  VIII.  won 
his  proud  title  of  "  Defender  of  the  Faith  "  by  his  reply, 
in  defence  of  the  seven  sacraments,  to  Luther's  "  Baby- 
lonian Captivity  of  the  Church^'  a  reply  in  which  we 
read  that  the  King  has  determined  that  "  untrue  trans- 
lations shall  be  burnt y  with  sharp  correction  and  punish- 
ment against  keepers  and  readers  of  the  same" 

Meanwhile  Wolsey  had  been  actively  employed  in 
hunting  down  the  heretical  books  which  were  fast  pouring 
into  England  from  over  the  seas,  and  in  burning  them 
at  St  Paul's.  In  1522  Luther  had  published  his  German 
New  Testament  Whether  or  not,  therefore,  by  the 
date  of  Tyndale's  visit  Tunstall  had  got  wind  of  his 
Gloucestershire  addresses,  the  auspices  were  in  any 
case  anything  but  favourable  for  a  private  and  un- 
authorised translator.  But  probably  little  or  nothing 
of  all  this  would  have  been  present  in  Tyndale's  unso- 
phisticated mind. 

By  Sir  Harry  Guildford's  advice  he  wrote  to  the 
Bishop  and  asked  for  an  interview,  leaving  his  letter 
at  Old  London  House  in  St  Paul's  churchyard.  In 
order  to  support  himself  in  London  he  appears  to 
have  got  temporary  employment  as  a  preacher  in 
St  Dunstan's-in-the-West,  a  few  paces  eastward  of  the 


138  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

present  juncture  of  the  Strand  with  Fleet  Street.  His 
preaching  brought  him  a  most  welcome  and  unex- 
pected friend  in  Humphrey  Munmouth,  a  rich  London 
merchant.  Munmouth  was  a  travelled  man,  who  had 
visited  cities  so  distant  as  Rome  and  Jerusalem,  and 
who,  as  it  chanced,  had  business  relations  with  certain 
members  of  the  Tyndale  family  then  engaged  in  the 
Gloucestershire  cloth  trade.  "  I  heard  the  foresaid 
preach  two  or  three  sermons,"  writes  Alderman  Mun- 
mouth in  1528  to  Wolsey,  while  in  prison  for  protecting 
Tyndale,  "  and  after  that  I  chanced  to  meet  him  and 
examined  what  living  he  had.  He  said  he  had  none 
at  all." 

When  in  due  course  Tyndale  was  summoned  to 
London  House,  his  interview  with  Bishop  Tunstall  came 
as  a  bitter  disappointment  and  humiliation  to  him.  As 
evidence  of  his  knowledge  of  Greek,  and  of  his  qualifi- 
cations as  a  translator,  he  had  brought  up  to  London 
with  him  a  version  which  he  had  made  of  one  of  the 
orations  of  Isocrates.  It  availed  him  nothing.  Whether 
it  was  that  the  uncouthness  of  his  personal  appearance 
and  address  was  against  him,  or  for  some  less  unworthy 
reason,  the  polished  and  cautious  prelate  gave  him 
the  cold  shoulder.  "  My  lord  answered  me  his  house 
was  full — he  had  more  than  he  could  well  find  (feed) — 
and  advised  me  to  seek  in  London."  And  now  for 
the  sequel. 

"  The  priest  came  to  me  again  "  (so  Munmouth  goes  on  to  say) 
"  and  besought  me  to  help  him,  and  so  I  took  him  into  my  house 
half  a  year,  and  there  he  lived  like  a  good  priest,  as  methought. 
He  studied  most  part  of  the  day  and  of  the  night  at  his  book.    I 


HUMPHRE  V  MUNMO  UTH  1 39 

did  promise  him  ten  pounds  sterling  to  pray  for  my  father  and 
mother,  their  souls,  and  all  Christian  souls.  I  did  pay  it  him 
when  he  made  exchange  to  Hamburg.  Afterwards  he  got  off 
some  other  men  ten  pounds  more,  the  which  he  left  with  me." 

Humphrey  Munmouth  lived  at  Allhallows,*  Barking, 
close  to  the  Tower,  and  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the 
parish  Church ;  one  of  the  very  few  medieval  city 
churches  which  were  spared  by  the  great  fire  of  1666, 
and  one,  moreover,  which  will  richly  repay  a  visit  at 
the  present  day. 

Thus  happily  it  chanced  that  Tyndale  found  board 
and  lodging,  and  a  rich  well-wisher  withal,  at  whose 
table  he  met  London  traders  and  merchants  from 
the  country  towns,  and  from  Germany,  France,  and 
Switzerland,  listened  eagerly  to  the  talk  of  the  day, 
and  heard  how  the  new  Lutheranism  was  fast  making 
way  on  the  Continent,  and  how  this  violent  uprising 
of  Teutonic  against  Latin  Christianity  was  revolu- 
tionising the  attitude  of  English  Catholics  towards 
Church  reform. 

Looking  to  what  are  known  to  have  been  Mun- 
mouth's  personal  sympathies  in  religious  matters,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  some  of  the  current  Lutheran 
literature  was  to  be  found  in  his  house,  and  that 
Tyndale  there  made  acquaintance  with  it.  Small  wonder 
was  it  that  as  he  came  to  learn  more  of  the  Catholic 
hierarchy  in  London,  he  should  have  been  forced  to 
realise  that  no  English  printer  would  dare  to  bring  out 

*  Its  vicar  in  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Dr 
Robert  Tyghe,  was  one  of  the  revisers  selected  for  the  production 
of  our  Authorised  Version,  and  three  of  his  fellow-labourers  were 
also  Barking  men. 


I40  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

his  Bible,  and  that  he  must  either  abandon  altogether 
the  great  hope  of  his  life,  or  else  face  the  risks  and 
sorrows  and  hardships  of  exile. 

"  I  understood,"  he  says,  "  that  not  only  was  there  no  room  in 
my  lord  of  London's  palace  to  translate  the  New  Testament,  but 
also  that  there  was  no  place  to  do  it  in  all  England." 

And  there  was  another  important  matter  which 
through  Munmouth's  friends  he  would  come  to  under- 
stand as  well.  He  would  have  had  it  explained  to  him 
that,  whatever  might  be  the  case  at  home,  there  were 
ample  facilities  for  printing  on  the  Continent,  that  his 
labours  would  not  be  allowed  to  be  frustrated  for  lack 
of  money,  and  that,  when  the  New  Testament  was 
actually  out  of  the  printer's  hands,  mercantile  shrewd- 
ness would  find  some  way  of  successfully  smuggling  it 
into  England  in  spite  of  all  the  bishops  on  the 
bench. 

Tyndale  was  a  man  of  exceptional  determination 
and  pertinacity  of  purpose.  His  mind  was  soon  made 
up.  He  felt  that  a  work  of  incalculable  importance  had 
been  given  him  to  do,  and  that  no  sacrifice  could  be 
too  great  if  only  he  might  be  enabled  to  carry  the 
matter  through.  About  the  month  of  May  1524  he 
left  London  for  Hamburg.  How  he  was  occupied 
between  May  1524  and  April  1525  is  a  point  on 
which  there  is  much  difference  of  opinion.  The 
unanimous  evidence  of  his  contemporaries  supports 
the  view  that  he  was  at  Wittenberg  with  Luther, 
and  that  he  worked  there  at  his  translation.  His 
modern  biographers,  on  the  other  hand,  keep  him  in 
Hamburg   for   the   whole    interval.      The    question   is 


TYNDALE  LEAVES  LONDON  FOR  HAMBURG   141 

perhaps  of  no  great  moment,  and  as  the  discussion  of 
it  would  take  up  too  much  space  we  prefer  to  leave  it 
open.     In  1525  we  are  again  on  sure  ground. 

It  is  not  known  how  far  the  work  of  translation 
had  advanced  before  Tyndale  left  England,  but  at 
any  rate  the  New  Testament  seems  to  have  been 
ready  for  the  printers  by  the  early  summer  of  1525. 

It  is  natural,  at  the  present  stage  in  his  history, 
to  ask  what  special  qualifications  Tyndale  had  for  his 
task,  and  on  this  subject  there  is  fortunately  abund- 
ant evidence.  Sir  Thomas  More,  a  sufficiently  hostile 
witness,  writes  of  him  that  "  before  he  went  over  the 
sea,  he  was  well  known  for  a  man  of  right  good  living, 
studious,  and  well  learned  in  Scripture."  George  Joye, 
also  a  hostile  witness,  speaks  (in  his  ^'■Apology'')  of 
Tyndale's  "  high  learning  in  his  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin, 
etc."  Spalatin,  the  confidential  secretary  and  librarian 
of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  quotes  one  of  the  foremost  of 
continental  scholars,  Herman  Buschius,*  as  having  said 
of  Tyndale,  whom  he  had  come  across  at  Worms  in 
1526,  that  "he  was  so  skilled  in  seven  languages, 
Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  French,  Spanish,  and 
English,  that  whichever  he  spoke  you  would  suppose 
it  his  native  tongue." 

It  is  worth  noticing  that  in  this  enumeration 
German  is  not  included,  so  that  Tyndale  may  probably 
have  acquired  that  language  during  his  residence 
abroad,  unless,  indeed,  Buschius  is  to  be  taken  as  not 

*  Herman  Buschius  was  one  of  the  joint  authors  of  the  cele- 
brated '"'' Letters  of  Obscure  Men"  and  a  friend  both  of  Erasmus 
and  of  ReuchUn. 


142  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

thinking  it  necessary  to  particularise  a  fact  of  general 
notoriety. 

Thus  the  testimony  of  his  contemporaries  bears  out 
the  conclusion  to  which  even  the  most  superficial 
acquaintance  with  his  New  Testament  must  conduct  us. 
Out  of  the  several  qualifications  which  are  indispens- 
able to  a  translator  of  the  Bible,  Tyndale  was  certainly 
possessed  of  three.  He  had  a  pure  and  reverential 
heart,  he  was  a  sound  scholar,  and  he  was  endowed 
with  a  delicate  sense  of  language.  With  these  quali- 
fications he  worked  on  Erasmus'  second  and  third 
editions  of  the  Greek  text  with  untiring  industry,  and 
with  a  keen  sense  of  responsibility,  having  as  his 
constant  helpmates  the  Vulgate,  the  German  of  Luther, 
and,  as  above  indicated,  the  Latin  of  Erasmus.  These 
helps  he  used  only  as  an  independent  scholar  would 
use  them,  and  never  as  a  slave.  As  a  translator  he 
toiled  alone,  for  his  great  friend  Frith  did  not  join  him 
on  the  Continent  till  the  year  1526,  while  the  queer 
companion  of  his  exile,  William  Roye,  was  never  any- 
thing more  to  him  than  an  amanuensis. 

In  the  spring  of  1525,  having  received  from 
Munmouth  the  ten  pounds  which  had  been  deposited 
with  him,  and  which  was  now  wanted  for  the  printers, 
Tyndale  moved  to  a  city  already  famous  for  its  presses, 
the  city  of  Cologne.  At  Cologne  3060  copies  were  to 
be  printed  by  Peter  Quentel  in  a  small  quarto  *  edition, 

*  It  may  be  well  to  explain  that  the  designations  "folio," 
"  quarto,"  etc.,  do  not  mark  the  size  of  a  book.  The  size  depends, 
in  each  case,  on  the  size  of  the  original  sheets  on  which  the  book 
is  printed.     If  the  sheets  are  folded  but  once,  the  book  is  a  folio, 


COCHL^US  THE  SPY  143 

with  a  prologue,  references,  marginal  notes,  and  divi- 
sions into  chapters,  but  not  into  verses  ;  and  the  printing 
had  gone  as  far  as  "  K "  in  the  signature  of  the  sheets, 
as  far  perhaps  as  St  Mark,  when  the  work  was 
suddenly  interrupted,  and  Tyndale  and  Roye  had  to 
pack  up  the  completed  sheets  and  make  good  a  hasty 
escape. 

There  had  been  a  spy  in  the  camp,  a  certain  John 
Cochlaeus,  a  man  known  among  his  Roman  Catholic 
friends  as  "the  scourge  of  Luther,"  who  had  been 
driven  from  Frankfort  in  1525  by  the  peasant  insurrec- 
tion, and  who  was  living  at  this  time  in  temporary 
exile  at  Cologne.  Having  a  book  of  his  own  in  their 
press,  he  chanced  to  hear  Tyndale's  printers  boasting 
over  their  cups  that  before  long  all  England  would 
become  Lutheran.  Under  the  genial  influence  of 
Bacchus  he  elicited  from  these  worthies  full  details  as 
to  a  certain  New  Testament  which  they  were  printing. 
No  time  was  lost  in  laying  his  information  before  the 
Senate  of  Cologne,  who  immediately  took  action  upon  it, 
and  also  in  giving  warning  to  Henry  VHL,  to  Wolsey, 
and  to  Fisher.  These  events  took  place  some  time  in 
September  1525.* 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  there  has  been  pre- 
served a  letter  •!*  to  Henry  from  his  almoner,  Lee,  after- 
whatever  its  height  and  breadth  may  be.  If  folded  four  times  it 
is  a  quarto  ;  if  eight  times  an  octavo,  and  so  on.  In  folios  and 
octavos  the  wire-lines  of  the  water-mark  run  perpendicularly,  in 
quartos  horizontally. 

*  Cochlaeus'  Commentary  on  the  Acts  and  Writings  of  Luther. 

t  Ellis'  Original  Letters^  Series  3,  vol.  ii. 


144  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

wards  Archbishop  of  York,  dated  December  2,  1525,  in 
which  he  warns  the  King  of  the  "  danger  and  infection  " 
which  will  ensue  if  this  pernicious  book  be  not  "  with- 
standed  "  to  the  uttermost.  "  This  is  the  next  way,"  he 
continues,  "  to  fulfil  your  realm  with  Lutherans.  .  .  .  All 
our  forefathers^  governors  of  the  Church  of  England^ 
hath  with  all  diligence  forbid  and  eschewed  publication 
of  English  Bibles^  as  appeareth  in  Constitutions  Pro- 
vincial of  the  Church  of  England"  etc. 

In  October  Tyndale  and  Roye  arrived  safely  with 
the  rescued  sheets  at  Worms,  a  town  which  had  by  that 
time  become  strongly  Lutheran.  Here  they  soon  found 
a  printer,  P.  Schoeffer,  who  was  willing  to  undertake 
their  business,  and  at  his  press  a  new  edition  was  pre- 
pared (with  the  view  of  out-manoeuvring  the  enemy) 
not  in  quarto  but  in  octavo,  and  with  neither  prologue  or 
notes,  but  only  a  short  "  Address  to  the  reader  "  inserted 
quite  at  the  end.  Like  the  quarto  edition,  it  was,  of 
course,  anonymous,*  and  bore  no  dedication. 

It  seems  probable  that,  in  addition  to  yx)0  copies  of 
the  octavo  edition,  which  was  finished  first,  3000  copies 
of  the  quarto  edition  were  also  published.  In  spite  of 
the  watchfulness  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  both 
issues  were  hidden  away  among  bales  of  various  mer- 
chandise, and  clandestinely  smuggled  into  England  as 
soon  as  navigation  was  open.  Most  likely,  therefore, 
they  arrived  in  London,  and  at  other  ports,  during  the 
spring  of   1526,  shortly  after   the   historical   scene,  on 

*  The  secret,  however,  was  soon  out,  the  clue  being  probably 
given  by  Roye's  satirical  "  Dialoge,"  which  he  directed  against 
Wolsey  in  1526. 


^    Of  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


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cn^cdlebt^cm.Znt  rf)c)r\rir^ out tftr^mgc left t^c  f^yppe 
ftnb  t^crc  father  ftnbfolowcb  ^y  m.  ^t  jp^t^. 

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0c6/an6picac|)yn0ct;)c0orpcnoftbefyn0bom/anb^ft!j:n?'^h'^'2^'^*?fP<''''efr6.( 
0c  All  manner  of  fyrfn<6/6rtbAlImancr  bifcAfte  ftmofirtcrbt  S..^lT^*"^  f<» 
people  anb^y6famcrp:ebab:oabctb:ou0^oi,talIM^  m^'^eteS-^ 
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cttee/onb  from  ieriifalcm/anb  from,  iur>'/flnb  from  r^crc;?  power  ant)  vtolea 
0ion6t^at  lye  bc)?onbiojbAn.  *  '^^' 

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©it  fpW)  Gnm*         -gr&pS" 

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a?entt>pmto  amoimtame/Anbwenpctoaftfetf/  ^cnot  amanbal 
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. lJnioiitV<inbt«ti0btt^tmfa)?in0c:^Ief|cbaret^c  ncfl?cr  Dcfcrrery 

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I<b. 


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fcb  arc  tp<  ma)^ntc)rM<r6  of  peace:  fo:  tpcy  joaioe  cattcb  erIjrKiourc  ber* 
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Blfflcbarc  j?e  tr()e  menf ^affrcvrUyoii/anbpcrfeciiteyoii/  X^/f^'^^  ^ 


^0  mcrittco 

TYNDALE'S  NEW  TESTAMENT  OF  1525.  [Face  p.  145. 


/"■  Of  THE  \ 

UNIVrp^JTY    5 


BURNING  OF  HERETICAL  BOOA'SKj-     ,^5 

Shrove  Sunday,  February  ii,  of  the  solemn  burning 
of  heretical  books  before  the  gate  of  St  Paul's  under 
the  great  crucifix  called  the  Rood  of  Northen.*  "  No 
burnt  offering,"  so  Campeggio  had  written  off  to  Wolsey 
after  this  holocaust,  "  could  be  better  pleasing  to 
God." 

The  zeal  of  Wolsey's  spies  must  indeed  have  been 
untiring,  for  notwithstanding  that  between  1525  and 
1528  no  less  than  six  editions  of  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ment (comprising  probably  some  18,000  copies)  were 
published,  yet  out  of  all  these  only  a  mutilated  fragment 
of  one  copy  of  the  quarto  issue  is  now  in  existence,  and 
of  the  octavo  edition  only  two  copies. 

The  quarto  fragment  consists  of  thirty-one  leaves,  or 
sixty-two  pages,  containing  a  Prologue,  a  list  of  the 
Books  of  the  New  Testament,  a  woodcut  of  an  angel 
holding  up  an  inkstand  into  which  St  Matthew  is 
dipping  his  pen,  and  a  translation  of  his  Gospel  up  to 
chapter  xxii.  12.  It  is  known  as  the  Grenville  Frag- 
menty  and  is  now  in  the  Library  of  the  British  Museum. 
It  was  accidentally  found  by  a  London  bookseller  nearly 
seventy  years  ago,  bound  up  with  a  treatise  by  .^colam- 
padius,  the  Swiss  reformer,  and  was  purchased  by 
Thomas  Grenville  and  bequeathed  by  him  to  the 
Museum.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  unique  fragment 
we  still  possess  eight  of  the  actual  sheets  printed  by 
Peter  Quentel  in  Cologne  before  1526,  and  preserved 
by  Tyndale  in  his  flight  from  Cologne  to  Worms.  As 
the  only  surviving  remnant  of  the  first  English   New 

*  See  Froude's  History,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  42-3,  who  gives  the  year  as 
1527. 

K 


146  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Testament  that  was  ever  printed,  it  is,  of  course,  quite 
priceless. 

Of  the  octavo  edition,  the  one  surviving  complete 
copy  (except  that  the  title-page  is  wanting)  is  in  the 
library  of  the  Baptist  College,  Bristol,  and  the  only  other 
copy,  which  contains  some  six-sevenths  of  the  New 
Testament,  is  in  the  library  of  St  Paul's  Cathedral. 

The  relation  of  Tyndale's  quarto  edition  to  the 
German  New  Testament  of  Luther  is  very  close.  The 
order  of  the  books,  the  planning  of  the  printed  page, 
the  way  in  which  the  text  is  arranged,  the  use  of 
the  outer  margin  for  the  "  pestilent  glosses,"  and  of  the 
inner  margin  for  references  to  parallel  passages,  are  all 
derived  from  Luther.  Nor  does  the  likeness  end  here. 
While  many  of  the  longer  glosses  or  annotations  are 
Tyndale's  own,  many  others  are  either  translations  or 
abridgments,  or  expansions  of  Luther's.  The  "Pro- 
logue to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,"  which  came  out 
in  1526,  is  also  practically  a  paraphrase  of  the  Preface 
which  Luther  had  recently  written  to  the  same  Epistle. 
These  facts  do  not  in  the  slightest  degree  reflect  on  the 
originality  and  independence  of  Tyndale  as  a  translator 
at  first  hand  of  the  Greek  text ;  nor  can  any  unpre- 
judiced person  who  may  take  the  trouble  to  compare 
his  work  with  its  source,  and  also  with  the  versions  to 
which  (like  a  conscientious  scholar)  he  constantly  re- 
ferred, feel  any  doubt  whatever  on  the  subject.  But 
the  resemblance  to  which  attention  has  been  directed 
throws  light  on  the  great  influence  which,  after  1523, 
Luther  exerted  on  his  English  fellow-labourer  in  the 
cause  of  the  Reformation,  and,  when   taken   together 


TYNDALE  AND  LUTHER  147 

with  the  bitter  hostility  which  had  been  excited  by  his 
controversial  writings,  and  with  the  alarm  that  was 
created  by  the  social  incendiaries  of  Germany,  it  goes 
far  to  explain  the  feeling  which  a  "  Lutheran "  New 
Testament,  appearing  in  England,  would  naturally 
arouse  among  the  loyalists  of  the  old  Church. 

Such  a  feeling  caused  Tyndale  no  surprise. 

"In  burning  the  New  Testament,"  he  wrote  in 
1527,  "they  did  none  other  thing  than  I  looked  for; 
no  more  shall  they  do  if  they  burn  me  also,  if  it  be 
God's  will  it  shall  so  be." 

It  is  only  just  to  Tyndale  to  add,  that,  in  his  own 
estimation,  he  was  neither  a  Lutheran  nor  indeed  a 
sectarian  of  any  kind.  In  the  *' Protestation"  printed 
in  his  New  Testament  of  1534,  he  vows  that  he  never 
wrote 

'  Either  to  stir  up  any  false  doctrine  or  opinion  in  the  Church, 
3r  to  be  the  author  of  any  sect,  or  to  draw  disciples  after  me,  or 
:hat  I  would  be  esteemed  above  the  least  child  that  is  born,  but 
jnly  out  of  pity  and  compassion  which  I  had,  and  yet  have,  on 
:he  darkness  of  my  brethren,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  knowledge 
)f  Christ." 

The  reader  may  be  amused  at  this  point  in  our 
narrative  with  a  story  connected  with  the  crusade 
igainst  Tyndale's  Testament,  for  which  we  are  indebted 
:o  the  old  English  Chronicler,  Hall. 

In  August  1529,  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Tunstall, 
Bishop  of  London,  were  at  Cambray,  watching  over 
;he  interests  of  England  in  the  treaty  then  being 
legotiated  with  Germany,  one  provision  of  which  was 
0  forbid  the  printing  and  circulation  of  heretical  books. 


148  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Tunstall  came  home  viA  Antwerp,  where  he  made  a 
bargain  with  one  Augustine  Packington,  a  merchant 
in  a  large  way  of  business,  with  a  view  to  a  grand 
seizure  of  New  Testaments,  "The  Bishop,"  writes 
Hall,  "  thinking  he  had  God  by  the  toe,  when,  indeed, 
as  he  after  thought,  he  had  the  Devil  by  the  fist, 
said,  '  Gentle  Mr  Packington,  do  your  diligence  and 
get  them,  and  with  all  my  heart  I  will  pay  whatsoever 
they  cost  you,  for  the  books  are  erroneous  and  nought, 
and  I  intend  surely  to  burn  them  at  Paul's  Cross.' 
So  Packington  came  to  William  Tyndale  and  said, 
'William,  I  know  thou  art  a  poor  man,  and  I  have 
gotten  thee  a  merchant.'  '  Who  ? '  said  Tyndale.  *  The 
Bishop  of  London.'  '  He  will  burn  them,'  said  Tyndale. 
*  Yea,  marry,'  quoth  Packington.  And  so  forward  went 
the  bargain ;  the  Bishop  had  the  books,  Packington 
the  thanks,  and  Tyndale  the  money." 

Tyndale  appears  to  have  laid  out  some  of  this 
money  in  buying  from  a  certain  Vorstermann  of 
Antwerp  the  blocks  for  the  rude  woodcuts  in  his 
'■'' Exodus  I'  of  which  he  made  use  to  illustrate  the 
Jewish  Tabernacle  and  its  furniture. 

Such,  then,  in  outline  is  the  history  of  our  earliest 
edition  in  English  of  the  New  Testament.  But  Tyn- 
dale had  no  intention  of  resting  content  with  what  he 
had  achieved.  He  was  soon  busily  engaged  on  the 
Old  Testament.  In  1530  there  accordingly  appeared 
a  new  volume  containing  a  translation  of  the  Penta- 
teuch from  the  original  Hebrew.  In  1531  was  published 
the  Book  of  Jonah  with  a  lengthy  Prologue  in  which 
the  then  condition  of  things  ecclesiastical  in  England 


THE  GREAT  REVISION  OF  158 Jf  149 

is  ably  surveyed.*  How  and  when  Tyndale  may 
have  contrived  to  acquire  his  knowledge  of  Hebrew 
is  not  known,  but  that  he  had  by  this  date  acquired  it 
_  is  certain.  Most  probably  he  had  made  the  most  of 
the  assistance  of  the  friends  whom  he  had  formed 
among  those  learned  Jews  who  were  to  be  found 
scattered  abroad  in  every  considerable  city  of  the 
Netherlands. 

We  come  next  upon  what  is  a  most  remarkable 
feature  in  Tyndale's  work.  It  is  very  rare  to  find  a 
man  who  can  throw  into  the  labour  of  revision  the 
same  amount  of  power  and  genius  which  he  may 
instinctively  and  readily  have  devoted  to  his  first 
love  in  translation.  Now  in  1534  there  came  out  a 
revised  edition  •!■  both  of  the  Pentateuch  of  1530  and 
of  the  New  Testament  of  1525,  and  this  latter  has 
always  taken  rank  as  its  author's  masterpiece.  The 
corrections  in  this  revised  Testament  amount  to  some 
thousands.  Prefaces  are  added  to  each  Book,  except 
to  the  Acts  and  the  Book  of  Revelation  ;  the  original 
glosses  are  all  re-written  and  carefully  toned  down,  so 
as  to  be  more  explanatory  and  less  polemical ;  a  trans- 
lation is  added  of  the  "  Sarum  "  Epistles,  and  in  short 
the  edition  is  almost  transformed  into  a  service  book, 
with  the  Church  lessons  clearly  marked  off. 

*  Only  one  copy  of  this  book  appears  to  be  now  in  existence. 
It  was  discovered  in  1861  by  Lord  Arthur  Hervey,  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  in  the  library  at  Ickworth,  bound  up  with  a  book  which 
had  been  there  for  many  generations. 

t  In  this  edition  the  title-page  has  Tyndale's  name,  and  the 
Preface  is  headed,  "William  Tindale  yet  once  more  to  the 
Christen  reader." 


ISO  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

But  it  is  not  merely  that  this  great  edition  bears 
witness  to  the  immense  pains  which  Tyndale  had  de- 
voted to  improving  it  in  the  Hght  of  his  own  remarkable 
advance  in  scholarship.  It  is  that  we  find  in  it  the 
same  quality  of  literary  inspiration  which  gave  its 
character  to  the  earlier  book,  and  are  made  to  feel 
that,  high  as  this  wonderful  man  stands  as  a  translator, 
he  may  yet  claim  to  stand  quite  as  high  as  a  reviser. 
These  matters,  however,  belong  rather  to  a  critical 
than  to  a  historical  review,  and  it  would  be  out  of 
place  to  go  into  detail  in  illustration  of  them  in  these 
pages. 

It  was  a  copy,  we  may  mention,  of  this  noble  edition 
which  Tyndale  caused  to  be  presented  to  Anne  Boleyn, 
out  of  gratitude  for  her  intervention  on  behalf  of  an 
Antwerp  merchant,  Richard  Herman,  who  had  got  him- 
self into  trouble  by  helping  in  "  the  setting  forth  of  the 
New  Testament  in  English."  This  copy,  beautifully 
ornamented  and  printed,  but  not  in  its  original  bind- 
ing, and  still  faintly  bearing  on  its  edges  the  words, 
"Anna  Angliae  Regina,"  is  now  in  the  British 
Museum. 

It  may  be  not  without  historical  interest  to  recall  the 
fact  that,  in  the  self-same  year  in  which  Tyndale  made 
this  notable  contribution  to  the  cause  of  translation, 
there  had  met  in  the  crypt  of  St  Denis,  Montmartre, 
during  the  early  dawn  of  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption, 
August  15,  1534,  a  little  company  of  seven,  including 
Peter  Faber,  Francis  Xavier,  and  Ignatius  Loyola,  who 
took  before  the  high  altar  that  solemn  vow  of  severance 
from  the  world,  and  of  devotion  to  the  Church,  from 


BETRAYAL  AND  MARTYRDOM  151 

which  sprang  the    Society  of  Jesus,   the   sheet-anchor 
of  the  Counter-Reformation. 

In  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  during  the  month  of 
May  1535,  Tyndale  was  treacherously  betrayed  to  his 
ever  watchful  enemies.  Enticed  out  of  the  house  of  his 
friend,  Thomas  Poyntz,  in  Antwerp,  he  was  seized  and 
carried  off  to  the  prisons  of  Vilvorde  Castle,  not  far  from 
Brussels.  The  agent  of  this  plot  was  one  Henry  Philips, 
a  rabid  Roman  Catholic,  but  who  his  principals  may 
have  been  is  not  known.  There  is  no  evidence  what- 
ever that  the  English  bishops  were  concerned  with  the 
matter,  and  it  appears  certain  that  neither  Henry  VHI. 
nor  Cromwell  was  personally  privy  to  it.  At  Vilvorde, 
Tyndale  was  kept  in  confinement  from  May  1535  to 
October  6,  1536,  when  he  was  put  to  death  by  stran- 
gling and  his  body  burnt  at  the  stake.  Foxe  gives  but 
one  solitary  detail  of  his  martyrdom.  He  cried  with  a 
fervent  zeal  and  a  loud  voice,  "  Lord,  open  the  King  of 
England's  eyes,"  a  cry  which  was  speedily  to  be  answered 
in  the  Royal  recognition  (1537)  of  the  Coverdale  and  the 
Matthew  Bibles. 

In  the  Archives  of  the  Council  of  Brabant  there  has 
been  preserved  a  pathetic  letter,  addressed  by  Tyndale 
in  Latin  to  the  Governor  of  Vilvorde  Castle,  in  which, 
after  begging  that  he  may  be  allowed  some  warmer 
clothing,  he  writes  as  follows  : 

"  I  wish  also  for  permission  to  have  a  candle  in  the 
evening,  for  it  is  weary  work  to  sit  alone  in  the  dark. 
But,  above  all  things,  I  entreat  and  beseech  your 
clemency  to  be  urgent  with  the  Procureur,  that  he 
may    kindly    suffer    me    to    have   my    Hebrew    Bible, 


152  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

Grammar,  and  Dictionary,  that  I  may  spend  my  time 
with  that  study." 

Apparently  his  prayer  was  granted,  for  it  is  now 
considered  certain  that  it  is  partly  to  his  labours  in  this 
foreign  dungeon  that  we  owe  the  translation  of  that 
portion  of  the  Old  Testament  (Joshua  to  2  Chronicles 
inclusive),  which  he  left  in  the  charge  of  his  intimate 
friend  and  literary  executor,  the  martyr  that  was  to  be, 
John  Rogers. 

We  have  now  followed  Tyndale  through  his  years 
of  training  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  have  taken 
note  of  his  natural  bent  for  Bible  study,  encouraged  as 
it  was  by  the  spirit  of  the  New  Learning  as  embodied 
in  men  like  Colet  and  Erasmus.  We  have  marked  how 
his  experience  of  the  arrogance  and  ignorance  of  the 
official  teachers  of  religion  had  so  disgusted  him  with 
the  emptiness  and  unreality  of  the  current  theology,  as 
to  give  birth  to  his  resolution  to  translate  the  Bible.* 
We  have  accompanied  him,  full  of  sanguine  anticipations, 
to  the  Bishop  of  London's  door,  and  have  overheard 
the  unsympathising  words  which  put  an  end  to  all  his 
cherished  hopes  of  publishing  his  New  Testament,  by 
authority,  in  the  capital.  We  have  watched  him  at  work 
in  the  house  of  his  heaven-sent  friend,  Humphrey 
Munmouth,  and  have  learnt  why  it  was  that  he  became 
an  exile  from  a  country  to  which  he  was  always 
most  devotedly  attached.  We  have  been  with  him  at 
Cologne  and  at  Worms,  while  he  prepared  his  first 
edition     for     the     Press,    and    have    made     ourselves 

*  See  Preface   to   the  Pentateuch :  Tytidale's   Works^   vol.  i., 
p.  393  (quoted  at  the  head  of  this  chapter). 


SUMMARY  OF  TYNDALE'S  CAREER  153 

acquHinted     with     the    stirring     circumstances     under 

which     its     despatch     to     England    was     successfully 

effected.      We   have   seen   how   right   he  had  been  in 

his  anticipation  of  the  reception  which  awaited  it  from 

the  supporters  of  the  old  Church,  how  Wolsey  tried  to 

stamp  and  burn  it  out,  and  how  the  Bishop  of  London, 

in  his  zeal  for  its  suppression,  became  an  unintentional 

contributor    towards    the   woodcut   illustrations    which 

presently    appeared    in    the    English   version    of    the 

Pentateuch,      And     lastly,    we    have    seen    Tyndale's 

enemies   closing   in   upon   him,   shortly   after    he    had 

completed  a  thorough  revision  of  his  literary   labours, 

and  burning  the  body  of  the  man  whose  spirit  they  had 

been  powerless  to  quell.     We  may  now  fitly  bring  this 

chapter   to   a   conclusion,   first,  by  placing   before   our 

readers    some   specimens   of  Tyndale's   translation,   so 

that  it  may  be  easy  for  them  to  realise  to  how  great  an 

extent  our  present  Bible  is  his  personal  work,  and  then 

by  suggesting  some  explanation  of  the  bitterness  of  the 

attack  which  so  highly  cultured  and  so  gentle-hearted 

an  opponent  as  Sir  Thomas  More  thought  it  his  duty  to 

make   on    a   man   who   was   as  upright  and  honest  as 

himself,  and  who  certainly  returned  him  a  Roland  for 

his  Oliver. 

In  the  selections  which  follow  the  spelling  has  for 

convenience    been    modernised.      The    first    extract   is 

from  the  Book  of  Numbers,  xvi.  28-30 : 

"  And  Moses  said :  Hereby  ye  shall  know  that  the  Lord  hath 
sent  me  to  do  all  these  works,  and  that  I  have  not  done  them  of 
mine  own  mind.  If  these  men  die  the  common  death  of  all  men, 
or  if  they  be  visited  after  the  visitation  of  all  men,  then  the  Lord 
hath  not  sent  me.     But  and  if  the  Lord  make  a  new  thing,  and 


154  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  earth  open  her  mouth  and  swallow  them  and  all  that  pertain 
unto  them,  so  that  they  go  down  quick  into  Hell,  then  ye  shall 
understand  that  these  men  have  railed  upon  the  Lord." 

The  next  is  from  St  Luke,  xv.   1 1  : 

"  A  certain  man  had  two  sons.  And  the  younger  of  them  said 
to  his  father,  Father  give  me  my  part  of  the  goods  that  to  me 
belongeth.  And  he  divided  unto  them  his  substance.  And  not 
long  after  the  younger  son  gathered  all  that  he  had  together,  and 
took  his  journey  into  a  far  country,  and  there  he  wasted  his  goods 
with  riotous  living.  .  .  .  Then  he  remembered  himself,  and  said, 
How  many  hired  servants  of  my  Father's  have  bread  enough  and 
I  die  for  hunger.  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father  and  will  say 
unto  him,  Father  I  have  sinned  against  heaven,  and  before  thee, 
nor  am  I  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son,  make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired 
servants.    And  he  arose  and  came  to  his  father." 

The  last  is  from  Phil.,  ii.  5  : 

"Let  the  same  mind  be  in  you  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus, 
which  being  in  the  shape  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be 
equal  with  God.  Nevertheless  he  made  himself  of  no  reputation, 
and  took  on  him  the  shape  of  a  servant,  and  became  like  unto 
men,  and  was  found  in  his  apparel  as  a  man.  He  humbled  himself, 
and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Wherefore  God  hath  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  above 
all  names,  that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  should  every  knee  bow,  both 
of  things  in  Heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  earth, 
and  that  all  tongues  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Lord 
unto  the  praise  of  God  the  father." 

These  illustrations  will,  it  is  hoped,  amply  suffice 
to  justify  the  eloquent  tribute  which  Froude*  in  his 
History  has  so  deservedly  paid  to  the  memory  of 
the   man   whose   great   services   we  have  endeavoured 

to  depict. 

«■ 
"  Of  the  translation  itself,"  he  writes,  "  though  since  that  time  it 
has  been  many  times  revised  and  altered,  we  may  say  that  it  is  sub- 

*  History  of  England^  vol.  iii.,  p.  84. 


ILLUSTRATIVE  SPECIMENS  155 

stantially  the  Bible  with  which  we  are  familiar.  The  peculiar 
genius — if  such  a  word  may  be  permitted — which  breathes  through 
it,  the  mingled  tenderness  and  majesty,  the  Saxon  simplicity,  the 
preternatural  grandeur,  unequalled,  unapproached,  in  the  attempted 
improvements  of  modern  scholars — all  are  here,  and  bear  the 
impress  of  the  mind  of  one  man,  William  Tyndale." 

Before  we  leave  this  portion  of  our  subject,  it  may 
interest  the  reader  to  have  before  him  specimens 
of  some  of  Tyndale's  peculiar  renderings  and  of 
his  famous  "  marginal  notes."  In  Gen.  xxxix.  2, 
we  have,  "  And  the  Lord  was  with  Joseph,  and  he 
was  a  lucky  fellow."  In  Matt.  vi.  7,  "When  ye  pray, 
babble  not  much."  In  Matt  xv.  27,  "  The  whelps  eat 
of  the  crumbs."  In  Rev.  i.  10,  "  I  was  in  the  sprete 
on  a  Sondaye."  The  gloss  on  Exod.  xxxii.  35,  is, 
"  The  Pope's  bull  slayeth  more  than  Aaran's  calf," 
and  on  Exod.  xxxvi.  6,  where  the  Israelites  are  told 
to  bring  no  more  offerings  for  the  furnishing  of  the 
Sanctuary,  "When  will  the  Pope  say  Hoo!  (hold)  and 
forbid  to  offer  for  the  building  of  St  Peter's?  And 
when  will  our  spirituality  say  Hoo !  and  forbid  to 
give  them  more  land  and  to  make  more  foundations? 
Never,  until  they  have  all." 

With  regard  to  the  hostility  which  More  and  the 
heads  of  the  Church  in  England  showed  to  Tyndale's 
translation,  one  explanation  has  already  been  offered, 
namely,  that  it  was  associated  in  their  minds  with 
Lutheranism,  as  Lutheranism  itself  was  associated  with 
schism  and  anarchy  ;  but  this  is  not  the  only  explanation. 
The  plain  fact  is  that  Tyndale  and  More  were  irrecon- 
cilably at  issue  on  first  principles  in  religious  matters, 
and  that  the  former's  published  works  moved  More  to  an 


156  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

indignation  which  knew  no  bounds.  Still  in  his  long 
controversy*  with  Tyndale,  More  expressly  says  that 
he  himself  is  not  in  principle  opposed  to  a  vernacular 
Bible,  though  he  objects  to  private,  incorrect,  and 
unauthorised  translations.  But  such  a  Bible,  in  his 
opinion,  should  be  taken  in  hand  only  by  men  of 
Catholic  minds,  and  only  in  times  less  rife  with  religious 
dissension.  Moreover,  it  should  have  the  approval 
of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  To  which  the  reply 
suggests  itself,  that,  if  Tyndale  had  waited  for  this 
conjunction  of  favourable  circumstances,  he  would  have 
had  to  wait  a  very  long  time.  The  bishops  were 
full  of  zeal  in  condemning  unauthorised  versions, 
but  they  did  not  succeed  in  producing  any  superior 
version  of  their  own.  Cranmer,  in  1535,  planned  an 
episcopal  translation,  but  the  scheme  was  not  carried 
out,  and  when,  at  a  later  date  {i.e.  in  1568),  the 
bishops  did  at  last  enter  the  field,  they  met  with 
no  very  conspicuous  success.  More's  real  substantial 
grievance  against  Tyndale  was  that  he  had  abandoned 
the  venerable  ecclesiastical  words,  words  endeared  to 
Catholics  by  their  old  associations,  and  words,  moreover, 
to  which  long  usage  had  given  a  prescriptive  sanctity. 
Instead  of  "  grace,"  "  charity,"  "  confess,"  "  penance," 
"  priest,"  "  church,"  "  salvation,"  Tyndale's  version  had 
given  "favour,"  "love,"  "acknowledge,"  "repentance," 
"elder,"  "congregation,"  "health,"  —  a  new  departure 
*  The  bitterness  of  both  controversialists  is  excessive  even  for 
those  days.  The  usually  gentle  More  writes  of  Tyndale  (in  the 
Confutation^  pp.  446,  681)  as  "a  beast"  as  one  of  the  ^^hell- 
hounds that  the  devil  hath  in  his  kennel"  and  as  discharging  a 
''^  filthy  foam  of  blaspJtemies  out  of  his  brutish  beastly  mouth." 


THE  OLD  CHURCH  TERMINOLOGY  157 

which,  however  much  it  might  incense  More,  offered 
a  perfectly  fair  subject  for  argument,  as  there  was  much 
to  be  said  on  both  sides. 

Not  that  the  issue  turned  on  a  mere  matter  of  words. 
Behind  the  change  in  vocabulary  there  undeniably  lay 
an  implied  change  in  doctrine,  just  as  behind  the 
vestment  controversy  there  lay  the  deeper  controversy 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  sacraments.  And  there 
was  yet  one  fault  more  with  which  Tyndale  was  charged. 
Those  who  had  any  real  acquaintance  with  the  Bible 
had  naturally  become  familiar  with  it  through  the 
Vulgate.  A  translation  which  was  based  independently 
on  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  originals,  and  which  only 
used  the  Vulgate  as  a  valuable  help,  must  necessarily 
contain  changes  which  would  jar  on  minds  for  whom 
this  Vulgate  was  practically  an  inspired  book.  It  was 
this  violent  repugnance  which  found  vent  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  Vulgate,  when  printed  in  juxtaposition 
with  its  two  ancient  sources,  as  having  been  "  crucified 
between  two  thieves."  * 

If  Tyndale  could  come  back  to  life  he  would 
indeed  rejoice  to  see  how  his  work  has  stood  both 
the  fiery  trial  of  theological  vindictiveness,  and  the  yet 
more  searching  test  of  time.  Surely,  when  we  look  at 
that  life  as  a  whole,  when  we  trace  through  its  checkered 
scenes  his  unwavering  persistency  of  purpose,  his  un- 
affected humility  and  self-effacement,  the  indomitable 
spirit  that  neither  exile,  nor  disappointment,  nor  perse- 
cution could  quench,  the  strong  courage  that  no  plots, 

*  "  Tanquam  duos  hinc  et  inde  latrones  "—say  the  editors  of 
the  Coviplutensian  Polyglot— '"'■  medium  autem  Jesum." 


158  WILLIAM  TYNDALE  AND  HIS  WORK 

no  intrigues,  no  prospect  of  martyrdom  could  deflect 
by  one  hair's-breadth  from  the  path  of  dwty,  his  trans- 
parent honesty  and  integrity,  the  conscientiousness  and 
truthfulness  that  distinguish  him  as  a  scholar  and  a 
translator,  and  his  faithfulness  even  unto  death  to  the 
task  which  he  had  set  himself  to  do,  the  name  of  the 
"  Apostle  of  England "  can  never  be  displaced  from 
the  proud  position  which  it  has  long  occupied  on  the 
roll  of  our  great  national  benefactors. 


BISHOP  COVERDALE. 


"  Not  myself  but  the  truth  that  in  life  I  have  spoken  : 
Not  myself  but  the  seed  that  in  life  I  have  sown  : 
Shall  pass  on  to  ages,  all  about  me  forgotten, 

Save  the  words  I  have  written,  the  deeds  I  have  done," 


At  8e  real  ^<aova-Lv  drjSove'S. 

{Call.  Ep.  47). 


Thy  notes  live  still. 


MILB8  COVEKDALE. 
(From  an  Engraving  by  Thos.  Trotter.) 


[Foce  p.  161. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    COVERDALE,   "MATTHEW,"     AND     GREAT     BIBLES 

[The  Chronological  Table  on  pp.  xviii.-xix.,  etc.,  will  be  found  of 
service  for  the  purposes  of  this  chapter.] 

Between  the  year  in  which  Tyndale  brought  out  the 
first  edition  of  his  English  New  Testament  and  the 
year  towards  the  close  of  which,  after  some  sixteen 
months  of  imprisonment  in  Belgium,  he  was  strangled 
and  burnt  at  the  stake,  not  far  short  of  fifty  thousand 
copies*  of  his  translation  had  issued  from  the  Press. 
And  by  this  time  Henry  VHI.  had  been  driven,  partly 
by  his  matrimonial  difficulties,  and  partly  also  by  the 
tempting  prospect  of  replenishing  his  purse  at  the 
expense  of  the  Church,  into  the  adoption  of  that  high- 
handed policy  of  ecclesiastical  autocracy  with  which  our 
readers  may  be  assumed  to  be  more  or  less  familiar. 

By  a  series  of  statutory  enactments  the  old  links 
which  attached  England  to  the  Roman  jurisdiction  were 
one  by  one  snapped  asunder,  and  a  legal  path  was  paved 
for  effecting  the  royal  divorce.  In  the  spiritual  no  less 
than  in  the  temporal  sphere,  the  King  was  declared  to 

*  These  Testaments  measured  for  the  most  part  only  five  or  six 
inches  by  four,  and  were  therefore  comparatively  easy  to  conceal. 

161  ^ 


i62    CO  VERB  ALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

be  within  his  dominions  supreme,  and  his  marriage 
with  Anne  Boleyn  made  the  rupture  with  the  Pope 
complete  and  irrevocable.  And  yet  it  was  but  a  few 
years  back  that  Henry  had  entered  the  lists  as  the 
champion  of  the  Latin  Church  against  Luther,  a  heretic 
who,  in  his  opinion,  deserved  to  be  burnt  alive,  and  his 
books  with  him.  While  the  Diet  of  Worms  was  in 
session  Henry  had  written  a  treatise  in  defence  of  the 
seven  sacraments,  which  won  for  him  from  the  Vatican 
a  title  of  which  his  vaingloriousness  never  ceased  to  be 
undisguisedly  proud,  the  title,  namely,  of  "  Defender  of 
the  Faith." 

In  that  book  he  had  dwelt  with  so  much  stress  on 
the  divine  authority  of  the  Pope,  that  even  Sir  Thomas 
More,  when  invited  to  look  it  through,  ventured  to 
question  the  wisdom  of  elaborating  a  point  of  such 
obvious  delicacy  and  danger.  Henry,  however,  had 
remained  unmoved.  "  His  Highness,"  says  More, 
"answered  me  that  he  would  in  no  wise  anything 
minish  of  that  matter."  As  yet  probably  the  King 
entertained  no  doubt  that  on  it  hinged  the  .legality  of 
his  marriage. 

This  literary  enterprise  would  appear  to  have  been 
of  Wolsey's  planning.  The  rapid  dissemination  in  the 
towns,  and  in  the  universities,  of  Lutheran  opinions 
and  literature  was  filling  him  with  alarm,  and  nothing 
would  better  serve  his  political  purposes  than  to  have 
his  royal  master  pledged  openly  before  Europe  to  the 
anti-Lutheran  party.  But  even  Wolsey  could  not 
foresee  the  future.  He  had  calculated  without  Anne 
Boleyn.     It  was  in  the  year  1522  that  the  young  girl 


FALL  OF  WOLSEY.     THOMAS  CROMWELL       163 

who  was  destined  to  prove  his  ruin  came  over  from 
France  to  be  a  maid  of  honour  in  the  English  Court. 
At  this  time  the  foreign  diplomacy  of  England  followed 
the  line  indicated  by  the  close  relationship  between 
Catherine  and  Charles  V.  But  after  the  defeat  and 
capture  of  King  Francis  at  the  battle  of  Pavia,  in  1525, 
Charles  had  become  so  dangerously  strong  that  the  old 
policy  of  alliance  with  him  was  abandoned  in  favour  of 
a  close  understanding  with  France,  and  Wolsey  even 
looked  forward  to  the  eventual  replacement  of  Catherine 
by  a  French  bride,  and  for  an  anti-imperial  league 
between  his  master  and  Francis.  Accordingly  when, 
in  1527,  the  imperial  forces  proceeded  to  storm  Rome, 
and  to  make  the  Pope  a  prisoner  in  his  own  castle  of 
St  Angelo,  Henry's  mind  was  once  for  all  determined 
as  to  what  course  he  must  pursue. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  the  old  feeling  of  uneasiness 
about  the  validity  of  his  marriage,  as  affecting  the 
succession,  had  of  late  years  grown  upon  him.  In  any 
case  he  had  now  fallen  violently  in  love.  He  was 
consequently  all  the  more  firmly  resolved  on  getting 
rid  of  Catherine,  either  through  Papal  sanction  or  in 
spite  of  it,  and  on  marrying — not  a  French  princess  but 
— his  new  flame. 

In  1529  Wolsey,  whose  failure  to  bring  the  Pope 
round  to  the  King's  side  in  the  divorce  business 
involved  his  downfall,  was  dismissed  by  his  fickle 
employer,  and  Thomas  Cromwell  began  to  feel  his  way 
to  power,  and  to  dream  his  dream  of  crushing  Charles 
V.  by  means  of  a  political  and  religious  league  of  princes, 
of  which  Henry  was  to  be  the  head. 


r64     CO  VERB  ALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

He  pictured  to  himself  the  King,  enriched  with  the 
spoils  of  a  plundered  Church,  supreme  and  absolute  in 
power,  and  with  Anne  Boleyn  for  his  Queen  ;  while  the 
King's  vizier  enjoyed  a  position  second  only,  if  second 
at  all,  to  that  of  the  great  dictator. 

With  regard  to  Henry's  matrimonial  problem  Crom- 
well and  Cranmer  each  had  their  own  solution.  In 
Cromwell's  view  all  that  Henry  had  to  do  was  to 
arrange  that  Parliament  should  declare  him  ecclesiasti- 
cally supreme.  With  this  sword  of  "  Supremacy "  he 
-might  safely  proceed  to  cut  the  knot  which  the  captive 
Pope  was  afraid  to  assist  him  to  untie.  Cranmer,  who 
was  more  of  a  lawyer  than  of  a  theologian,  and  more  of 
a  timid  courtier  than  either,  advised  that  reference  should 
be  made  to  a  select  body  of  canonists,  in  England  and 
abroad,  to  decide  whether  the  Papacy  had  ever  been  in 
a  position  to  give  validity  to  a  union,  which,  on  the 
assumption  that  Catherine  had  been  the  wife  of  Henry's 
brother,  contravened  the  law  of  God  as  laid  down  in 
Scripture. 

Though  the  Pope  of  the  day  could  scarcely  be 
expected  to  stultify  himself  by  deciding  that  a  prede- 
cessor of  equal  infallibility  had  exceeded  his  legitimate 
powers,  still  if  a  strong  body  of  expert  opinion  could  be 
procured  in  favour  of  Cranmer's  contention,  then  the 
marriage  with  Catherine  was  no  marriage,  the  Roman 
dispensation  must  give  way  before  the  plain  law  of 
Scripture,  and  Henry  was  a  free  man.  "This  man," 
was  the  King's  joyful  exclamation  when  the  suggestion 
was  first  conveyed  to  him,  "  This  man  has  got  the  right 
sow  by  the  ear  1 " 


HENRY  VIII.  AND  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE        165 

Warham  was  now  dead,  and  the  docile  and  not  too 
scrupulous  Cranmer  had  become  Primate.  By  his 
ecclesiastical  pronouncement,  and  by  that  of  the 
canonists  who  had  been  consulted  at  his  suggestion, 
the  marriage  with  Catherine  was  held  to  have  been 
void  from  the  beginning,  and  Henry  and  Anne,  who 
had  already  been  privately  married,  were  declared  by 
the  Archbishop  to  be  man  and  wife. 

The  prospects  of  an  English  Bible  had  thus  sud- 
denly become  brighter  than  they  had  ever  been  before. 
In  the  first  place  the  King's  open  repudiation  of  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  left  him  inferentially  pledged  to 
the  paramount  authority  of  Scripture.  He  was  not 
unwilling,  moreover,  as  will  presently  appear,  that  his 
subjects  should  on  certain  reasonable  conditions  possess 
a  translation  in  their  own  tongue.  He  was  of  this 
mind  because  such  a  translation  had  all  along  been  con- 
templated by  the  New  Learning,  with  whose  objects  he 
had  from  the  first  been  in  strong  sympathy,  and  also 
because  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  whatever  he 
could  do  to  encourage  the  national  language  would  tend  in 
like  measure  towards  the  cementing  of  the  national  unity. 
And  this  was  an  immense  step  gained  ;  for,  what  with 
the  prodigious  force  of  his  own  personality,  and  with 
the  centralisation  at  this  time  of  all  real  power  in  the 
Crown,  Henry  VHI.  might  for  all  practical  purposes  be 
considered  as  identical  with  England.  At  any  rate  the 
Supreme  Head  could  now,  when  his  humour  should 
permit,  be  approached  on  a  subject  which  Cranmer 
had  deeply  at  heart,  namely,  the  subject  of  an  author- 
ised vernacular  version. 


i66    COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

By  the  King's  side  stood  Wolsey's  lay  successor,  a 
man  of  great  ability  and  of  even  greater  ambition, 
trained  abroad  in  the  principles  of  Macchiavelli,  but 
with  his  fortunes  staked  on  the  success  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  in  that  sense  therefore  a  zealous  political  Pro- 
testant— Thomas  Cromwell.  The  young  Queen,  too, 
whose  brief  spell  of  influence  was  now  at  its  height, 
was  well  disposed  towards  the  cause  of  the  Reformers, 
while  in  Cranmer,  and  in  Hugh  Latimer  the  King's 
chaplain,  the  promoters  of  an  English  Bible  had  two 
eager  friends,  who  both  of  them  stood  high  in  the  royal 
favour,  and  the  former  of  whom  had  been  advanced  to 
the  Primacy  under  circumstances  which  involved  the 
open  recognition  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  final  court 
of  appeal. 

In  order  to  follow  the  train  of  events  which  under 
the  above  conditions  led  up  to  the  publication  of  the 
Coverdale  Bible,  we  must  now  for  a  moment  retrace 
our  steps. 

The  reader  will  not  have  forgotten  that,  immediately 
on  its  appearance,  Tyndale's  New  Testament,  whether 
with  glosses  or  without  them,  had  at  the  King's 
command  been  denounced,  proscribed,  and  condemned 
to  the  flames  both  by  Archbishop  Warham,  and  by 
Tunstall,  Bishop  of  London.  No  books  could  be  more 
formally  censured  and  forbidden.  Still,  none  the  less, 
they  continued  in  secret  but  very  real  existence ;  they 
had  that  indescribable  attraction  which  attaches  to  all 
forbidden  things ;  they  could  not  be  wholly  extermi- 
nated, and  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  be  recalled. 

In  the  year  1530,  when  these  volumes  had  already 


THE  KINGS  CONDITIONAL  PROMISE  167 

been  some  four  years  in  clandestine  circulation,  there 
was  published  a  royal  proclamation,  covering  what  was 
termed  a  "  Bill  in  English  to  be  published  by  the 
preachers,"  or,  in  plain  language,  a  direction  for  the 
proper  tuning  of  the  provincial  pulpits.  This  important 
proclamation  had  been  preceded  by  a  Synod  of  learned 
divines,  whose  deliberations  were  largely  occupied  with 
the  question  of  a  vernacular  Bible,  and  were  continued 
for  no  less  than  twelve  days.  Strangely  enough  Hugh 
Latimer  was  among  the  members  of  this  conference. 
By  the  resolutions  which  it  adopted,  but  which  Latimer 
subsequently  repudiated,  certain  "  great  errors  and 
pestilent  heresies "  were  unanimously  condemned,  such 
for  example  as  "  the  translation  of  Scripture  corrupted 
by  William  Tyndale  as  well  in  the  Old  Testament  as 
in  the  New"  together  with  a  long  list  of  specified 
enormities  in  books  like  "  TJie  Wicked  Mafnmon"  and 
"  TJie  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man"  both  of  Tyndale's 
composition,  and  in  the  scurrilous  ''Book  of  Beggars"  by 
Simon  Fish. 

The  Bill  is  made  to  say  that  "whereas  diverse  of 
his  subjects  think  it  the  King's  duty  to  cause  the 
Bible  to  be  translated  into  English,"  and  that  the  King 
and  his  prelates  "doo  wronge  in  denying  or  letting  of 
the  same,"  the  Conference  has  decided  that  "  the  having 
of  the  hole  Scripture  in  Englisshe  is  not  necessarye  to 
Christen  men,  and  at  this  tyme  not  expedient.  The 
King,  however,  was  to  be  understood  as  promising 
that,  when  quieter  times  came  back,  he  would  cause  the 
New  Testament  to  "  be  by  learned  men  faithfully  and 
purely  translated  "  and  given  to  the  people. 


1 68     COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

It  is  evident,  then,  that,  even  before  1530,  the 
demand  which  was  springing  up  for  an  English  Bible 
had  obtained  official  recognition.  As  to  the  extent 
and  urgency  of  the  demand  it  is  not  easy  to  speak  with 
confidence.  On  the  one  hand  we  have  to  remember 
that  the  entire  population  can  scarcely  have  exceeded 
some  three  million  souls  ;  and  that  the  majority  of  this 
population  were  unable  to  read,  and  were,  moreover, 
strongly  attached  to  the  Catholic  services  and  general 
mode  of  life  to  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  been 
accustomed  from  time  immemorial.  On  the  other 
hand  English  was  now  the  established  national  lan- 
guage ;  and  the  rising  tide  of  Lutheranism,  sweeping  all 
that  remained  of  the  Lollardy  of  the  fourteenth  century 
into  its  current,  had  laid  a  strong  hold  upon  the  middle 
classes  in  the  town.* 

These  classes  formed  a  mercantile  body  which 
proved  itself  the  more  willing  to  welcome  the  Re- 
formation, because  their  commercial  interests  better 
harmonised  with  the  active  energies  of  Protestantism 
than  with  the  inertness  and  torpor  with  which 
the  wealth,  the  luxury,  and  the  conservative  policy 
of  the  Latin  Church  had  caused  its  leaders  to  rest 
content.  At  any  rate  we  may  feel  tolerably  confident 
that  printers  and  publishers,  whether  here  or  abroad, 
would  not  have  embarked  their  capital  in  issue  after 
issue  of  the  New  Testament,  and  indeed  of  the  entire 
Bible,  unless  they  had  seen  good  reason  for  expecting 
to  make  a  fair  profit  out  of  the  venture. 

Foxe  is  not  a  witness  to  whom  we  can  ever  con- 
*  Brewer's  Henry  VHL,  ii.,  470. 


THE  MERCANTILE  MIDDLE  CLASS  169 

fidently  pin  our  faith,  but,  after  making  every  allowance 
for  his  Protestant  bias,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that 
he  had  satisfied  himself  that,  among  a  considerable 
proportion  of  the  community,  there  was  an  increasing 
anxiety  to  have  the  Scriptures  made  accessible.  The 
party  of  reform  preferred  English  to  Latin ;  they  were 
tired  of  being  kept  intellectually  in  the  dark ;  they 
were  alienated  by  the  moral  corruption  which  had  so 
largely  honeycombed  the  Church  and  disgusted  thought- 
ful minds.  By  help  of  the  Bible  the  conscience  of  Eng- 
land was  finding  a  new  King,  In  his  newly-opened 
Word  men  heard  him  speaking  to  them  face  to  face. 
A  few  years  more  and  they  were  making  answer  to  him 
in  an  English  Liturgy. 

It  is  in  no  way,  therefore,  surprising  that  the  Con- 
vocation over  which  Cranmer  presided  in  1534  should 
have  carried  a  resolution  against  Gardiner,  and  peti- 
tioned Henry  VIII.  for  an  English  translation.  There 
is,  however,  no  evidence  to  show  that  their  petition  was 
ever  actually  laid  before  him  in  person ;  at  any  rate, 
it  was  repeated  in  1536,  a  fact  which  is  worth  recalling 
as  incidental  evidence  that  the  Coverdale  translation 
of  1535  was  not  considered  to  be  altogether  satis- 
factory. This  petition  would,  however,  in  any  case 
have  been  placed  before  Cromwell,  and  it  is  Cromwell's 
shrewd  perception  of  the  position  at  which  affairs  had 
arrived  which  calls  for  our  attention.  But  we  must 
first  introduce  our  readers  to  the  future  Bishop  of 
Exeter,  Miles  Coverdale,  who  now  makes  his  appear- 
ance on  the  stage. 

Coverdale  was  born  in  1488,  and,  like  Wyclifife  before 


I70    CO  VERB  ALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

him,  was  a  Yorkshireman.  As  a  young  man  he  was 
attached  to  the  monastery  of  the  Augustine  Friars  at 
Cambridge,  of  which  Dr  Robert  Barnes,  a  prominent 
reformer,  became  in  due  course  the  Prior.  Coverdale  was 
a  member  of  the  "  Germany  "  club  of  Lutherans  in  the 
University,  and  was  accustomed  to  attend  their  meetings 
at  the  "  White  Horse,"  near  St  John's.  Of  the  details 
of  his  early  years  very  little  is  known,  but  he  seems 
to  have  been  an  occasional  visitor  at  Sir  Thomas  More's 
house  in  Chelsea,  and  either  there  or  elsewhere  to 
have  made  Cromwell's  intimate  acquaintance.  About 
the  year  1526  he  became  a  secular  priest,  and  when 
Prior  Barnes  was  summoned  to  London  to  make  a 
formal  recantation  of  his  heresies,  Coverdale  accom- 
panied him  thither  and  assisted  him  in  preparing  his 
defence.  In  or  about  1527  we  find  him  writing  to 
Cromwell  for  assistance  in  his  Biblical  studies : — 

"  Nothing  in  the  world  I  desire  but  books  ;  they  once  had,  I 
do  not  doubt  but  Ahnighty  God  shall  perform  that  in  me  which 
He  of  His  most  plentiful  favour  and  grace  hath  begun." 

In  1528  he  was  at  work  in  the  county  of  Suffolk 
preaching  against  the  mass,  compulsory  confession,  and 
the  worship  of  images.  Probably,  therefore,  it  may  soon 
have  become  perilous  for  him  to  remain  in  England. 

In  1529  he  is  said  by  Foxe  to  have  met  Tyndale 
at  Hamburg,  and  to  have  helped  him  in  translating 
the  Pentateuch ;  but  the  story  in  its  dates  and  details 
is  by  no  means  free  from  doubt,  besides  which,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  Coverdale  was  never  at  any  time 
much  of  a  Hebrew  scholar.  At  any  rate,  from  1529 
to   1535  we  practically  lose  sight  of  him,  and  all  that 


CO  VERB  ALE'S  EARL  V  LIFE  1 7 1 

is  known  is  that  for  the  greater  part  of  that  time  he 
was  living  on  the  Continent.  It  is  at  least  a  permis- 
sible conjecture  that,  when  Cromwell  became  aware,  as 
Secretary  of  State,  of  the  turn  which  things  were  taking, 
he  determined  to  be  ready  with  a  new  Bible.  He  would 
have  been  quick  to  realise  that  the  chief  obstacle  to  the 
introduction  into  England  of  a  licensed  Bible  lay  now 
in  the  association  of  the  partial  translation  already  made 
with  the  name  and  with  the  controversial  writings  of 
Tyndale,  whom  Henry  heartily  detested,  both  as  being 
in  his  opinion  a  Lutheran,  or  Zwinglian,  heretic,  and 
also  as  a  public  denouncer  of  the  divorce.  And  he  may 
well  therefore  have  placed  himself  in  communication 
with  his  old  friend  Coverdale,  encouraging  him  to  be 
prepared  with  a  complete  version  of  his  own,  and  to 
get  it  printed  in  his  own  name  and  published  in 
England,  the  necessary  expenses  being  guaranteed  to 
him. 

Be  this  how  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  rather  less 
than  a  year  before  Tyndale's  martyrdom,  and  while 
he  still  lay  in  Vilvorde  prison,  a  Bible,  which  had  been 
originally  promoted  by  Jacob  van  Meteren,  and  had 
been  printed  either  at  Zurich  or  at  Antwerp,  stole 
unobserved  into  England.  This  Bible,  which  was  in 
black  letter,  and  of  small  folio  size,  measuring  some 
12  inches  by  8,  bore  the  date  of  October  4,  1535.  It 
contained  an  elaborate  and  somewhat  obsequious  and 
cringing  dedication  to  Henry  VIII.,  a  dedication  which 
was  probably  no  part  of  the  original  book,  but  was 
added  in  the  hope  of  winning  a  free  circulation  in 
England,  and  was  signed  by  his  "  humble  subjecte  and 


172     CO  VERB  ALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

dayle  oratour,  Myles  Coverdale."  For  obvious  reasons 
neither  the  printer's  name  nor  the  place  of  pubHcation 
was  given.  The  printed  sheets  reached  London,  un- 
bound, either  in  the  winter  of  1535  or  early  in  1536,  and 
were  there  bound  up  and  re-published,  by  James  Nicol- 
son,  with  certain  alterations,  including  an  amended  title- 
page.  The  original  title-page  had  faithfully  described 
this  Bible  as  having  been  "  translated  out  of  Douche  and 
Latyn  into  Englishe."  The  amended  title-page  read 
more  briefly  as  follows,  "  faithfully  translated  into 
Englyshe." 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Nicolson,  the  famous 
Southwark  publisher,  who  had  purchased  this  Coverdale 
Bible  from  Van  Meteren,  may  have  feared  that  the 
allusion  in  the  foreign  title-page  to  German  Bibles 
would  do  more  harm  than  the  allusion  to  Latin  Bibles, 
including  the  Vulgate,  would  do  good  ;  and  may  have 
hoped  that  his  customers  would  imagine  that  they 
were  buying  a  translation  from  the  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
Perhaps  the  simpler  explanation  may  be  that  Nicolson 
was  pressed  for  space,  and  had  in  some  way  to  find 
room  for  two  extra  lines  to  complete  a  mutilated  quota- 
tion from  Joshua  i.  8. 

We  cannot,  however,  call  him  up  for  cross-examina- 
tion, and  this  question  must  be  left  undecided.  Un- 
decided, too,  must  rest  the  equally  tantalising  problem 
of  why  it  was  that  Cromwell  did  not  promptly  seize 
some  opportunity  of  getting  Henry's  authority  for  the 
issue  of  the  first  edition  of  1535,  an  issue  which,  though 
not  actually  and  in  terms  sanctioned,  was  on  the  other 
hand  never  formally  prohibited,  while  the  second  edition. 


I.u<.«.b 


DE,t^^ol>;,o»ieof3rraeiX^«mri4Urt«;. 
yccAitb  c\}t  poficry  w  cf 3ac*l;>,(l><»l  c^uer- 
u  vnt9  (Sw  t^e  tnip^tY  one-S^t  t^W5i> 
*^ V  pcc>pIc(o3rr«l ) be *3  t^)c  ( "onoc  «f c^e 
(ec,7tc|l><vlbiict^rcmtiaiintofc|>cmoii(v 
WiJiKrcu  unto  ^im.peifccu  la  tl^e  tMOgwce 
«f  l)ii»  t^4t  flojvcc^  111  rig^fuoufnclfetanO 
t^erfwf  LORDEof^ooffcall^alpctfcccI^ 
fulpl  c^c  t^mge ,  t^*t^e  ^«t^  OetentiYiieO 

fOK  c^03  (rttct^  tl)eLORDt.<B<>t>of^<}Oftc6: 
?C^ou  ni'^  people,  c^ftc&wellfff  in  ©ion,b« 
r*t:<tff<ty&«  foi  t^Cinge  of  t^e  2ttiirian6: 
^  (IjtU  ivffgg  ^is  (laff*t  t^e,  yet  itnb  bc<t- 
te  c^e  wi  t^  t  ^c  ro&&,  «9  t|>e  (£  gi  ptiaa  O^ft 
fomec-fme:  23ut(oone<»fKr,fl>«lmy  icjat^ 
«itO  my  irjt>ign««ort  be  fulfyileb  *g«f n(£ 
«^c(rbl«rp^emies. 

tXlotouer  c^eLORDEof  |>0<»fJes  p^.tl  p:c 
p(tre«  (courge  fot^itn , Mfe <t9  was  c^c  pu 
ny(l>mct  of  tn*OM  »p5  f  mount  of  (Djtb. 
2irT0^e  (l^rtl  life  »p^i6  rOO  ouer  t^e  \le,as 
l)c  &7&  fomtyme  oucr  t^e<Cgipri«n9.  <C^eii 
P>(»1  ^19  burt^cij  be  tatm  from  t^y  (!?"'' 
*ci»,  «nl>  ^le  70(f  from  tl;^  necl',7e«  t^«  («' 
iw  yocf  n>*I  comipK  foi  very  fattteffe .  -jje 
(l>alcortie  to2lMt^,<jnO  go  t^OJOWcORXsrO 
ank'groti.2>iic  <tt  rnad)m49  (Ijal  ^e  ma(?cr 
^16  ^00(1c,aitb  go  Oiici-  f  foo:Oe.(0«ba  jijal 
be  t^ir  reflinge  place ,  2^|)rtm4  p>*lbe  4Jt« 
Ybe,CEr4be«  S4ul  (l?4l  fie  4n?4ye.  <C^  WO7 
ceof  f  noyfe  oft:^7^0i(e9(ot)Oug|>«r<S»4l 
lim)(l>4lb€  ^erOe  rnto  I4t9  arit>  to  2tn«- 
t^Ot  ^ ,  w^icb  alio  fl>4l  be  m  trouble .  ttU^' 
men4fI?4lcrembIefo:fi;4rf,buct^ecitc|yn» 
cf <E»«bim  4re  maly ,  yet  n>4l  ^e  reni47fie  4t 
Hob t^4t04ye. afrcr  t|)4t: , fl)4l  ^c  life  vp 
|>i6^0ii0e  4i47nflt|)emourttSion,  4iit)4- 
P47nfi  t^e  ^ill  of^erul^Um.Sut  (e.t^c  LOR 
be  (5^00  of|)00fies  ih^l  t4te  4W47e  t  t^c  p:o» 
^e  from  thence,  w'  f  4re.^ef!?4!  ^ejrUow- 
,nc  tl)c  pjoiibc,  4nb  fd  tl^  ^le  mynbeb .  Zi>e 
t^omee  of  t^  woD  |l>albe  rootcb  out  vf 
7:0»i,4nbJlib4nu&fI>4l^4ue4mig^ticf4r, 

5W^ew  tt)ie  t^ei  c  fl)4l  come4  rob  fort^  of 
vll-f  l\'yiirel«eof'3e|fe,4itb4  bloflbmeouc 
OfWoroceX^lp  eceoftbe  LORDE  (l?4l 
lig^t  opoit  itttbefpjcte of  wyfbome ,  4nb 
»rtbeffiotibintre:t^erpjete  of  councel,  anb 
fjrengtb:  f  fpjetc  of  l'M0ixlette,4iib  of  t|>e 
fe4re  of  C9ob :  4nb  (]>al  rti4t6  ^im  fenieiic 
in  tl;efc4rcof(6ob.  ^or^  ftyaln^t  geue 
fentfce,4fceri:l;ctbii«ae  y  fl)al  be  biOugl;c 
befosebis  eies,  iiecl;errep:oue4m4tter4e 
tbe  (wfl  ^rmge :  but  »it^  rig^tOBlnefTc 
fy^  ^eiubse  t|)e  p^oti,  <m9  wit^  ^)ne» 


C^e  Pi.  C^p, 


(l74l^erefourmett;e)VmpIeoft^eworlbc  ».Th. 

iy^(l}Al\'mycc  i  jwoUoe  wit^  f  1^4 jf of 
^to  moutl),  -r  Witt) f  b:e4t^ of ^la  moutb  ' 
jl;4l  l;e  flaye  tlje  tutcf  eb.  ^g^tuourrtcfle  tpj^ 
(Ijalbe  tlje  gv2b(eof  ^ig  l07ne9,trei»tl^«nb 
f4itl;fuliie(je  tl;e  gytbinge  vp  of  ^t9  ray- 
ne9.C^e|lj4lf  j»olfeb»»«lw»it^t^l«fc«>  JJ 
flubtt)6leoparbe|I>4llfcBoj»nebyt^ego-  £&*, 
te.23ullote9,l7«n»  attb  c<j  tel  (l>fll  tepe  com 
p4n7  together,  fo  t^4t4litlect)ilbe  fl>4l 
bjyuet^em  foic^.  C^cox»e4nOt^e2»er« 
n?4l  febe  toget^er,4rtb  e^ir  yongoites  ftyal 
lye  together.  C  ^e  If  o  n>4l  e4t«  Jir4t«;e  lite 
t^60>e,  or  t^ecowe.  C^ecfeiloe  w^yle^ 
(ucfet|),  Ibal  b»uc»  befyze  to  t^e  (irpenteff 
ne/l,4nb  w\^i\^eie  W6eneb,^e  jl^alput^ta 
tyinie  in  to  tbefCocf  4crycebenne.  ^oman  es  » 
|T74lboeueIeo4not^er,nom4tt(l>4loe/ho-  Ab»c 
4iiot^er,in4Ut^e^iU  of  my  Q45ctuAry.  ' 
^01  t^ee4rt^(l>4lbe  ful  off  Cnowlegeof  ^ 
f  LORDE,  eueit  49  t^oug^t|!ei»4teroft^ 
ftc  floweb  ouer  t^c  e4rt^. 

Zr^tn  fly'xl  t^ecSentJe?  cnquerc  4fter 
t^erote  of  3e(fe(  «>^td)  |l>albe  |ec  »p  fo:« 
totenmto  the®entile9;for  ^tsbweUtnge 
jl;4lbe gIoriou9.at t|)e fametyme (T)4l t|e  Roif. 
L0RDEt4Ce  m^onbe4g4yne,to  conquere 
f  remnauntof  bis  people (w^td) arc leffc  iUi»- 
4lyue)5f«'nf^*2lflirt«9,(SgipnVjn9,Clr4- 
bi4n9,tt1bn4n8,(£l4niitc9,C4Jccyc6,2ln- 
tJ0c^i46  4«b3l§be9  of  t^e  fe<.2lnb  ^  (Ijcl  uk*. 
fee  vp4  tote  flmongct^e(5entJe«,4iib  g« 
t^  together  f  bifperfeb  of^fraeJ.yceonb 
t^ontc4|ie6  of  3ub4fromr|)e  fcure  cor- 
ners off  JvOjlccCljc  ^fltreb  oftSpbraim, 
4nb  i  eiimytcof^ubiTlljalbeclcflerocteb 
out.(iSp^J4imfl74U'C4icnocuclwilto3o  S> 
b4,4nb5»b4n>4lnotl?4te«£pl):.vm:bnc 
t^ey  bot^  together  n>4l  flye  »po  tbe  |l>ui 
fcere  of  t^e  ptjiliflyneg  tctt«rb  tbe  We/r, 
4nb  fpoylc  tbcm  togttbcr  r^4cbttcU  tO' 
»:4rb  tite.iizAfi.  Zi>c  3^un1\tf 6  4nb  t^e 
tno4bitc9  |lj4Uect^u  ^obcsfaiLanbt^* 
2tnimomtc9(lj4lbcobtbtfntrt:rotb(m. 

tl)eLORDE4lfo  (l?4l  cicuc  tbc  t»nt;«s  of 
t^  (C  jipciaelee,  4nb  n-it^  amigbtic  »yn 
be  fljal^t  life  vp  ^16  ^onbc  cucr  rjilB«,«n& 
^yM  (my  tc  bis  \eui  (trfrtnics  4itb  Ht4f  c  men 
500ucrbjyt(l>ob.2tnbrb»id |Vl  bcni4t« 
4  W4ye  foj  ^19  people,  y  rctrayrtcr^  ft  em 
t^e2tflrin«ti9>Wc4*itb4ppcTKbtof  y'- 1*^ 
rovliteo,  ivl;4t  tymet^cy  bcp^rteb OUtcf 
t^clonbeofiSgiptc. 

€^cpj.(£b<".prfT. 
►•tf) t|)<;t ttjcn  f bou (l?^lt  fltye :  ©LOR-  » 
h)l,^  tl?4nre  t^c,f«i  tbcw  w<fft  tiifpita 
r«^  <B  BK » bac  t^R  b«fl  tt}t4yncO  M?t 


COVERDALB'S  BIBLE  OF  1536. 


[Face  p.  173. 


TYNDALE  AND  CO  VERB  ALE  CONTRASTED      173 

published  by  Nicolson  in  1537,  was  able  to  announce 
itself,  in  like  manner  with  the  Matthew's  Bible  of  that 
same  year,  as  appearing  "  with  the  King's  most  gracious 
license." 

One  effect  of  the  introduction  of  this  Coverdale 
Bible  was  completely  to  take  the  wind  out  of  the  sails 
of  Cranmer's  abortive  attempt, — on  which  he  had 
embarked  after  the  Convocation  of  1534, — to  anticipate 
the  Bishops'  Bible  of  Elizabeth's  reign  by  an  official 
version  from  the  hands  of  his  brother  prelates. 

Coverdale's  work  was  in  strong  contrast  with  Tyn- 
dale's  in  several  noteworthy  respects. 

It  was  in  the  first  place  a  complete  Bible — our 
earliest  complete  Bible — whereas  Tyndale's  was  in- 
complete, comprising  as  it  did  only  about  one-quarter 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Next,  it  was  not  the  result 
of  any  independent  study  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek, 
but  a  secondary  translation  based  on  pre-existing 
German  and  Latin  versions.  Further,  it  was  not 
hampered  with  any  contentious  matter,  and  it 
restored  all  but  one  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  words 
which  Tyndale  had  discarded,  the  exception  being 
the  retention  by  Coverdale  of  the  term  "  congregation," 
instead  of  "  church."  And  lastly,  it  was  a  task  imposed 
upon  a  willing  labourer  from  without,  not  a  labour  of 
love  originating  in  a  strong  impulse  from  within. 

To  give  his  countrymen  a  native  Bible  was  felt 
by  Tyndale  to  be  the  mission  of  his  life,  and  the 
overmastering  desire  to  fulfil  it  took  possession  of 
him  with  all  the  power  of  a  passion.  Coverdale,  on 
the  other  hand,  never  expressed  himself  as  feeling  con- 


174     CO  VERB  ALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

scious  of  any  mission  at  all.  He  could  rely  on  at  least 
one  powerful  patron,  and  was  content  to  accept,  with 
modest  diffidence,  and  even  with  reluctance,  the  charge 
that  had  been  entrusted  to  him. 

The  history  of  the  English  Bible  presents  us  with 
many  surprises,  but  with  few  perhaps  so  strange  as 
that  the  right  to  use  a  book  which  is  generally 
recognised  as  the  badge  and  symbol  of  religious  free- 
dom, should  for  the  first  time  have  been  conceded  to  the 
English  people  under  circumstances  such  as  those  of  the 
"  great  terror,"  when  men  felt  "  as  though  a  scorpion 
lay  sleeping  under  every  stone."  Strangest  of  all 
that  this  privilege  should  have  come  from  the  hands 
of  an  autocrat  who  in  ritual  and  doctrine  was  from 
first  to  last  a  strong  Catholic,  and  should  have  come, 
moreover,  with  the  eager  co-operation  of  a  minister 
of  the  type  of  Thomas  Cromwell.  For  Cromwell 
was  an  adventurer  without  a  spark  of  religious  prin- 
ciple, and  one  whose  conduct  appears  to  have  been 
consistently  regulated  by  his  ambition  so  to  manipulate 
and  manage  his  master  as  to  secure  for  himself  both 
fame  and  fortune  by  playing  Protestantism  as  the  win- 
ning political  card. 

As  an  introduction  to  his  Bible  it  will  be  of  interest 
to  our  readers  to  have  before  them,  in  Coverdale's  own 
words,  a  description  of  the  circumstances  under  which 
he  became  a  translator ;  of  the  view  which  he  took  of 
his  work ;  and  of  the  authorities  to  whom  his  version 
is  indebted.  The  transparent  simplicity  and  sincerity 
of  the  writer's  character  make  it  impossible  to  doubt 
that  he  is  giving  us  the  exact  truth  of  the  matter. 


CO  VERB  ALE'S  PROLOGUE  175 

In  his  "Prologue   unto  the  Christian   Reader"  he 
expresses  himself  as  follows  : — 

"  Considering  how  excellent  knowledge  and  learning  an  inter- 
preter of  Scripture  ought  to  have  in  the  tongues,  and  pondering 
also  my  own  insufficiency  therein,  and  how  weak  I  am  to  perform 
the  office  of  a  translator,  I  was  the  more  loath  to  meddle  with  this 
work. 

"  Notwithstanding,  when  I  considered  how  great  pity  it  was 
that  we  should  want  it  so  long,  and  called  to  my  remembrance 
the  adversity  of  them  which  were  not  only  of  ripe  knowledge, 
but  would  also  with  all  their  hearts  have  performed  that  they 
began  if  they  had  not  had  impediment  ;*  considering,  I  say, 
that  by  reason  of  their  adversity  it  could  not  so  soon  have 
been  brought  to  an  end  as  our  most  prosperous  nation  would 
fain  have  had  it  ;  these  and  other  reasonable  causes  considered, 
I  was  the  more  bold  to  take  it  in  hand. 

"And  to  help  me  herein  I  have  had  sundry  translations  not 
only  in  Latin  but  also  of  the  Dutch  interpreters,  whom  because 
of  their  singiilar  gifts  and  special  diligence  in  the  Bible  I  have 
been  the  more  glad  to  follow  for  the  most  part,  according  as  I 
was  required. 

"  But,  to  say  the  truth  before  God,  it  was  neither  my  labour 
nor  desire  to  have  this  work  put  in  my  hand  ;  nevertheless  it 
grieved  me  that  other  nations  should  be  more  plenteously  provided 
for  with  the  Scripture  in  their  mother  tongue  than  we  ;  therefore, 
when  I  was  instantly  required,  though  I  could  not  do  so  well 
as  I  would,  I  thought  it  yet  my  duty  to  do  my  best  and  that 
with  a  good  will 

".  .  .  .  It  was  never  better  with  the  congregation  of  God 
than  when  every  church  almost  had  the  Bible  of  a  sundry  trans- 
lation. .  .  .  Sure  I  afn  thai  there  cotneth  more  knowledge  and 
understanding  of  the  Scripture  by  sundry  translations  than  by 
all  the  glosses  of  our  sophistical  doctors.  Be  not  thou  offisnded, 
therefore,  good  reader,  though  one  call  a  scribe  that  another 
calleth  a  lawyer;  or  elders  that  another  c^tXh  father  and  mother; 
or  repentance  that  another  calleth  penance  or  amendment.  For  if 
thou  be  not  deceived  by  men's  traditions,  thou  shalt  find  no  more 

*  The  reference  is  of  course  to  Tyndale,  who  was  in  prison,  but 
who  might  possibly  obtain  his  release. 


1 76    CO  VERDALE,  MA  TTHE  W,  AND  GREA  T  BIBLES 

diversity  between  these  terms  than  between  fourpence  and  a  groat. 
And  this  manner  have  I  used,  calling  it  in  some  place  penance  that 
in  another  I  call  repentance  ....  that  the  adversaries  of  the  truth 
may  see  how  that  we  abhor  not  this  word  penance^  as  they  un- 
truly report  of  us." 

And  in  his  Dedication  he  writes  with  equal  candour 
and  directness : 

"  I  have  with  a  clear  conscience  purely  and  faithfully  translated 
out  olfive  sundry  interpreters" 

Who  these  interpreters  were  will  appear  presently, 
but  in  the  meantime  let  us  learn  something  of  Cover- 
dale's  style  by  taking  two  specimens  of  his  version 
selected  from  familiar  passages  in  the  prophetical  books. 

"  Be  of  good  cheer  my  people,  be  of  good  cheer  (saith  your 
God).  Comfort  Jerusalem  and  tell  her  that  her  travail  is  at  an 
ende,  that  her  offence  is  pardoned,  that  she  hath  received  of  the 
Lord's  hand  sufficient  correction  for  all  her  sinnes." 

Isaiah  xl.  i. 

"  Behold  I  will  send  my  messenger  which  shall  prepare  the 
way  before  me,  and  the  Lorde  whom  ye  would  have  shall  soon 
come  to  his  temple,  and  the  messenger  of  the  Covenant  whom 
ye  longe  for.  Beholde  he  cometh  saithe  the  Lorde  of  hostes. 
But  who  may  abide  the  daye  of  his  coming,  who  shall  be  able 
to  endure  when  he  appeareth  ?  For  he  is  like  a  goldsmith's  fire 
and  like  a  washer's  soap.  He  shall  set  him  down  to  try  and  to 
cleanse  the  silver ;  he  shall  purge  the  children  of  Levi,  and 
purify  them  like  as  gold  and  silver." 

Malachi  iii.  i,  2,  3. 

Scholars  who  have  been  at  the  pains  of  collating 
this  Bible  with  the  Latin  and  German  versions 
to  which  Coverdale  would  have  access,  are  generally 
agreed  in  specifying  his  "  five  sundry  interpreters  "  to 
have  been  as  follows  : — 


COVERDALE'S  FIVE  INTERPRETERS  177 

1.  The  Swiss-German  (or  Zurich)  Bible,  by  Zwingli 
and  Leo  Juda,  which  was  completed  in  1529,  and 
which  is  characterised  rather  by  smoothness,  grace, 
and  rhythmic  flow  of  phrase,  than  by  any  very 
rigorous  fidelity  to  the  original. 

2.  Luther's  German  Bible. 

3.  The  Vulgate. 

4.  The  Latin  Bible  of  1 528  by  Pagninus,  a  Dominican 
monk,  a  pupil  of  Savonarola,  and  a  teacher  of  Oriental 
literature  at  Rome  under  Leo  X. 

5.  Either  Tyndale's  translation,  or  else  some  addi- 
tional Latin,  or  perhaps  German,  version. 

In  that  part  of  the  Old  Testament  which  Coverdale 
was  the  first  to  render  into  English,  namely,  the  historical, 
poetical,  and  prophetical  books,  he  closely  follows  the 
above-named  Zurich  Bible  in  preference  to  any  other 
interpreter.  In  the  New  Testament  his  two  chief 
guides  are  Tyndale's  latest  *  revision  and  Luther.  In 
the  Apocrypha,  where  like  the  Zurich  translators  he 
leaves  out  the  "  Prayer  of  Manasses,"  he  allows  himself 
a  wider  range  than  in  any  other  part  of  his  work,  and 
displays  throughout  his  rendering  a  relatively  stronger 
individuality. 

The  influence  of  Coverdale  upon  the  Authorised 
Version,  whether  exerted  through  his  own  or  through 
Matthew's  Bible  (of  which  latter  compilation  his  contribu- 
tion makes  up  about  one-third),  or,  lastly,  through  the 
Great  Bible — in  whose  successive  editions  we  find  him 
revising  and  re-revising  both  his  own  work  and  that 
of  Tyndale — has  been  great  and  enduring. 

*  Known  as  the  "  G.  H."  revision  of  1534-5. 

M 


178     CO  VERB  ALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

Not  that  we  can  lay  our  hand  on  many  passages 
of  any  considerable  length  in  which  his  renderings 
have  remained  up  till  now  untouched.  It  is  rather  that, 
for  page  after  page,  in  some  subtle  way,  in  a  cadence 
here,  and  a  happy  rendering  there,  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  this  gifted  literary  artist  make  themselves 
continuously  felt.  He  was  of  a  delicate  and  susceptible 
temperament,  endowed  in  an  exceptional  degree  with 
the  feeling  for  rhythm,  and  with  an  instinct  for  whatever 
is  tender  and  beautiful  in  language.  His  relation  to 
other  translators  may  be  said  somewhat  to  resemble 
that  in  which,  to  take  an  illustration  from  the  domain 
of  music,  Spohr  stands  to  his  brother  composers.  It  is 
to  the  melodiousness  of  his  phrasing,  to  his  mastery 
over  what  may  be  described  as  the  literary  semi-tone, 
to  his  innumerable  dexterities  and  felicitous  turns  of 
expression,  that  we  owe  more  probably  than  we  most 
of  us  recognise  of  that  strangely  moving  influence 
which  seems  ever  to  be  welling  up  from  the  perennial 
springs  of  the  English  Bible,  and  from  the  Prayer 
Book  version  of  the  Psalms. 

No  two  men  could  well  be  more  different  than 
Coverdale  and  Tyndale.  It  is  only  necessary  to  glance 
at  their  respective  portraits,  in  the  prints  which  have 
come  down  to  our  times,  in  order  to  appreciate  the 
moral  and  intellectual  contrast  which  we  can  see 
reflected  in  their  physical  features.  The  character  of 
the  one  stands  out  as  cast  in  a  heroic  mould,  full  of 
originality  and  creative  power,  massive,  rugged,  self- 
reliant,  afraid  of  no  one,  seeking  no  one's  patronage. 
That  of  the  other  is  of  a  man  made  to  follow,  but  not 


TYNDALE  AND  CO  VERB  ALE  179 

to  lead,  gentle  and  sympathetic  in  nature,  eager  to  be 
of  service  to  the  cause  of  the  Bible,  but  with  nothing  of 
the  heroic  or  creative  about  him,  modest,  retiring,  self- 
depreciating,  leaning  on  his  patrons  almost  even  to 
the  point  of  obsequiousness,  diffident  and  timorous. 
Yet  each  of  them  is  the  literary  complement  of  the 
other,  and  most  assuredly  our  Bible  could  spare  neither 
the  strong  virility  and  scholarship  of  Tyndale,  nor 
the  gentle  tenderness  and  resourcefulness  of  Cover- 
dale. 

If  our  limits  permitted  we  might  quote  sentence 
after  sentence  from  the  Authorised  Version,  and  more 
especially  from  its  Psalter,  as  well  as  from  Isaiah,  the 
golden  coinage  of  which  is  from  the  Coverdale  mint, 
but  the  following  must  suffice  : — 

"  Seek  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  call  upon  him  while  he 
is  nigh." 

"  My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth,  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my 
heart  and  my  portion  for  ever." 

"  Thou,  Lord,  in  the  beginning  hast  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
earth,  and  the  heavens  are  the  works  of  thy  hands.  They  shall 
perish  but  thou  shalt  endure  ;  they  all  shall  wax  old,  as  doth  a 
garment,  and  as  a  vesture  shalt  thou  change  them,  and  they  shall 
be  changed.     But  thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  not  fail." 

And  if  Coverdale  is  thus  pre-eminent  in  the  qualities 
of  melody,  distinction,  and  beauty,  he  has  also  his  own 
occasional  quaintnesses  of  expression. 

"Then  God  opened  a  gome  tooth  in  the  cheke  bone  so  the 
water  went  out." — Judges  xv.  19. 

"  Make  me  a  syppynge  or  two." — 2  Samuel  xiii.  6. 

"  Shott  the  King  of  Israel  between  the  mawe  and  the  lunges." — 
I  Kings  xxii.  34. 

"No  one  faynte  noe  feble  among  them,  no  not  a  slogish  nor 
slepery  parsone." — Isaiah  v.  27. 


i8o    COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

We  must  now  turn  our  attention  to  a  Bible  which 
followed  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  version  from  which 
we  have  quoted,  and  which  was  destined  to  fulfil  Cover- 
dale's  modest  hope  that  his  own  work  might  before  long 
be  displaced  by  that  of  some  other  labourer  in  the 
same  field.  The  compiler  of  this  new  Bible  was  John 
Rogers.  Published  on  grounds  of  prudence  under  an 
assumed  name,  and  purporting  to  be  "Matthew's"  Bible, 
it  was  the  edition  which  enjoyed  the  most  brisk  circula- 
tion in  the  short  reign  of  Edward  VI. 

John  Rogers  took  his  B.A.  degree  at  Cambridge  in 
1525.  About  nine  or  ten  years  later  he  left  England  to 
take  up  the  post  of  chaplain  to  the  Merchant  Adven- 
turers of  the  "English  House"  in  Antwerp  in  which 
Tyndale  was  then  living,  and  with  which  Cromwell  was 
for  some  years  in  close  relation.  There  a  close  friend- 
ship sprang  up  between  him  and  Tyndale,  a  friendship 
which,  if  Foxe  is  correct,  was  extended  also  to  Miles 
Coverdale.  Prominent  among  the  reformers  during 
the  brief  life  of  Edward  VI.,  Rogers  was  the  first  to 
fall  a  victim  to  the  Marian  persecutions,  and  was  burned 
at  Smithfield  in  1555. 

Before  Tyndale  was  martyred  he  had  appointed 
Rogers  to  be  his  literary  executor,  and  had  committed 
to  his  care  the  unfinished  MS.  of  his  translation 
of  the  Old  Testament  from  the  Book  of  Joshua  to  2 
Chronicles  inclusive.  Rogers  himself,  it  is  supposed, 
was  anxious  that,  in  addition  to  the  Coverdale  Bible, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  only  a  secondary  version, 
there  should  be  produced  a  Bible  in  which  a  reader 
should  find  incorporated  all  the  original,  but  uncom- 


THE  AIM  OF  THE  ''MATTHEW  BIBLE        i8i 

pleted,  work  which  had  been  done  by  the  dear  friend 
whom  he  had  just  lost.  But  Tyndale,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  left  a  large  portion  of  the  Old  Testament  untrans- 
lated ;  and  the  literary  gap  which  was  thus  occasioned 
could  most  conveniently  be  filled  up  in  the  new  Bible 
by  making  use  therein  of  some  part  of  the  translation 
with  which  Coverdale  had  recently  been  occupied. 

Future  revisers  would  thus,  through  the  joint  ver- 
sions of  Tyndale  and  Coverdale,  have  the  best  available 
basis  on  which  to  work.  But  in  carrying  out  this 
idea  Rogers  was  confronted  with  two  preliminary 
obstacles  which  had  in  some  way  to  be  surmounted. 
One  difficulty  was  that  of  funds.  The  other  was  that 
no  publisher  would  risk  his  capital  in  a  book  with  the 
fatal  name  of  William  Tyndale  upon  the  title-page. 
Who  the  mysterious  "  Matthew "  may  have  been 
is  not  known.  Probably  he  may  have  been  a  mer- 
chant who  was  willing  to  place  sufficient  capital  at 
Roger's  disposal  to  start  the  press-work,  and  who  also 
allowed  his  name  to  be  used  as  a  convenient  blind. 
The  printing  seems  to  have  been  begun  at  Antwerp, 
where  Rogers  was  living  at  the  time,  and  to  have  gone 
on  successfully  as  far  as  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  when,  as 
no  more  money  was  forthcoming,  the  enterprise  came 
temporarily  to  a  deadlock. 

At  this  juncture  two  London  publishers  came  to 
the  rescue ;  Richard  Grafton,  a  member  of  the  Grocers' 
Company,  and  Edward  Whitchurch,  a  fellow-merchant, 
the  former  of  whom  is  known  to  have  staked  a  large 
sum  in  the  undertaking.     To  print  the  Bible  in  English 


1 82     CO  VERB  ALE,  MA  TTHE IV,  AND  GREA  T  BIBLES 

was  now  evidently  considered  to  be  a  fair  commercial 
speculation. 

In  this  respect  the  "  Matthew "  Bible  tells  its  own 
tale.  The  Book  of  Isaiah  has  a  blank  leaf  in  front 
of  it,  and  the  pagination  begins  afresh  from  there. 
At  that  point,  moreover,  we  find  a  second  title,  in 
red  and  black  letters,  "  The  Prophetes  in  Englysh "  ; 
and  on  the  upper  corners  of  the  reverse-page  are  the 
initials  R,  G.,  and  on  the  lower  corners  E.  W. 
At  the  end  of  Malachi  are  the  letters  W.  T.  in  large 
ornamented  capitals,  standing  of  course  for  William 
Tyndale. 

The  Bible  is  of  folio  size,  but  rather  larger  than 
the  Coverdale  edition,  which,  as  has  been  said  above, 
measures  12  inches  by  8.  It  is  printed  in  black  letter, 
and  is  dedicated  to  "  The  moost  noble  and  gracyous 
Prynce  Kyng  Henry  the  Eyght,"  the  dedication  being 
signed  by  "  Thomas  Matthew."  There  is  an  "  Exhor- 
tation to  study  of  Scripture  "  signed  J.  R. ;  some  twenty 
pages  or  more  of  preliminary  matter,  such  as  a  calendar, 
almanac,  etc. ;  and  a  really  valuable  concordance 
of  texts  on  "  Principal  Matters,"  strongly  Protestant 
in  its  composition,  which  Rogers  has  apparently 
taken  directly  from  the  French  Bible  of  Olivetan. 
From  that  Bible  also  is  derived  his  introduction  to  the 
Apocrypha,  and  his  translation  of  the  brief  "  Prayer 
of  Manasses,"  a  book  which,  as  we  saw,  Coverdale  had 
omitted  altogether.  Curiously  enough,  the  translation 
of  the  prophecy  of  Jonah  is  not  taken  from  Tyndale's 
version  but  from  Coverdale's.  Coverdale,  however,  had 
based  his  work  on  Tyndale,  while  Tyndale's  "  Jonah  "  had 


PERMANENT  INTEREST  OF  ROGERS'  WORK    183 

become  so  scarce  that  Rogers  was  probably  unable  to  lay 
his  hand  on  a  copy.  Perhaps  its  lengthy  "  Prologue  " 
made  it  as  popular  among  the  reformers  (who  relished 
the  sauce  quite  as  much  as  the  meat)  as  it  would  be 
obnoxious  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  At  any 
rate  Tyndale's  own  contribution  exceeds  that  of  the 
prophet  in  the  proportion  of  nearly  eight  pages  to 
one. 

No  utilisation  can  be  traced  in  this  Bible  of 
the  "  Sarum  Epistles "  from  the  Old  Testament,  to 
which  reference  was  made  when  describing  Tyndale's 
labours  as  a  translator.  There  are  Prologues  to 
almost  all  the  Books,  including  the  notorious  Prologue 
to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  taken  from  Tyndale's 
New  Testament ;  and  there  are  notes  at  the  end  of  each 
chapter,  some  few  of  which  are  highly  controversial, 
and  even  for  those  hard-hitting  days  somewhat  offensive, 
though  the  majority  of  them  are  either  purely  explana- 
tory or  practical. 

The  permanent  interest  of  the  "  Matthew "  Bible 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  forms  the  real  basis  of  all  later 
revisions,  and  that  through  the  line  of  the  Great  Bible, 
and  of  the  Bishops'  Bible,  our  Authorised  Version  is 
descended  from  it  as  from  a  direct  ancestor. 

Such,  then,  is  the  historj'  of  Rogers'  composite  work. 
His  Bible  reached  England  about  the  end  of  July  1537, 
and  in  one  of  a  series  of  letters,  all  of  which  have  been 
preserved,  Cranmer,  who  seems  almost  to  have  been 
expecting  it,  at  once  notified  its  arrival  to  Cromwell. 
He  informs  the  Vicegerent  that  so  far  as  he  had  read 
(which,  by  the  way,  could  not  have  been  very  far),  he 


1 84     COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

thought  it  the  best  translation  he  had  yet  seen,  and  begs 
that  Henry  might  be  persuaded  to  license  its  circulation 
"until  such  time  that  we  bishops  shall  set  forth  a 
better,  which  I  think  will  not  be  till  a  day  after 
doomsday^ 

It  would  indeed  be  interesting  to  know  exactly  what 
passed  in  the  royal  audience  chamber,  and  how  it  was 
that  Cromwell  contrived,  within  the  short  space  of  a 
week  or  ten  days,  to  obtain  the  King's  authorisation. 
We  should  be  curious,  too,  to  learn  whether,  finding  his 
royal  master  in  a  favourable  mood,  Cromwell  seized 
the  opportunity  of  getting  its  forerunner,  the  Coverdale 
Bible,  licensed  at  the  same  time.  Except  for  Fulke's 
statement  that  Matthew's  edition  was  the  first  "  author- 
ised "  English  Bible,  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  it 
was  any  earlier  in  circulation  than  the  Coverdale  Edition 
of  I537>  which  was  "set  forth  with  the  King's  most 
gracious  license." 

The  point  of  chronological  priority,  however,  is  one 
of  no  practical  importance.  What  most  excites  our 
astonishment  is  that  a  transaction  which,  if  regard  be 
had  to  Henry's  varying  moods,  and  to  the  fury  of  his 
anger  when  once  aroused,  must  surely  have  risked  the 
heads  of  all  concerned,  should,  as  regards  its  details, 
have  left  no  trace  whatever  in  the  records  of  the 
time. 

For  here  was  a  Bible  two-thirds  of  which  were 
actually  the  arch-heretic's  own  work.  Tyndale's  very 
initials  stood  printed  in  conspicuous  capitals  at  the  end 
of  the  Old  Testament.  The  most  ultra-Protestant  of  all 
his  Prologues,  the   introduction  to   the   Epistle  to  the 


//OPV  CAME  HENRY  TO  SANCTION  IT?        185 

Romans,  was  given  in  full.  Some,  though  not  many,  of 
the  added  notes  were  as  ecclesiastically  offensive  as 
anything  which  even  the  exile  himself,  whose  pen  did 
not  lack  pungency,  had  ever  written. 

Grafton,  who  was  a  shrewd  man  of  business,  and 
who  had  ventured  some  six  or  seven  thousand  pounds 
of  our  money  in  the  book,  must  himself  have  known 
quite  well  what  was  inside  it.  Yet  we  find  him  handing 
it  to  Cranmer  with  child-like  confidence,  and  the  Primate 
contenting  himself  with  what  could  only  have  been  the 
most  cursory  glance  at  the  contents,  and  then  warmly 
recommending  it  to  Cromwell  for  Henry's  approval. 
Cromwell  on  his  side  submits  it,  without  delay  or  hesita- 
tion, to  the  Supreme  Head,  just  as  if  it  had  been  the 
most  innocent  book  in  the  world. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  somewhat  at  a  loss  as  to 
what  the  reasons  could  have  been  which  decided  "  The 
Defender  of  the  Faith"  to  license  this  Bible  offhand. 
Unfortunately  we  have  no  sufficient  materials  to  enable 
us  to  solve  the  problem.  It  is  as  difficult  to  suppose  that 
Cromwell  took  the  chance  that  the  King  would  not  think 
it  necessary  to  look  closely  into  it,  as  it  is  to  assume  that 
he  had  made  practically  certain  beforehand  that  he  would 
be  running  no  real  risk  in  thus  placing  his  head  within 
the  lion's  jaws.  Henry  was  certainly  not  a  man  to  be 
trifled  with,  nor  was  he  a  person  lacking  either  in  dis- 
cernment or  in  decision.  He  was  actuated  all  along 
by  the  instinctive  feeling  that  the  nation,  as  a  whole, 
was  with  him  in  upholding  both  its  internal  religious 
unity,  and  its  external  ecclesiastical  independence.  He 
believed  the  Lutherans  to  be  an  obstacle  to  unity,  and 


1 86     COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

accordingly,  as  in  Lambert's  case,  he  burnt  them  as 
heretics.  The  Papalists  endangered  England's  indepen- 
dence, and  he  therefore  cut  off  their  heads  as  traitors 
to  the  supremacy.  If,  when  Cromwell  asked  him 
to  license  the  "  Matthew "  Bible,  he  had  chanced  to 
open  it  at  Tyndale's  '■^Prologue  to  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans^'  or  if  the  odour  of  some  of  the  unorthodox 
notes  had  reached  the  royal  nostrils,  it  would  surely 
have  been  a  stirring  day  both  for  that  venturesome 
vizier  and  for  all  who  stood  behind  him. 

"  All's  well,"  the  proverb  says,  "  that  ends  well,"  and 
whatever  the  considerations  which  on  this  eventful  occa- 
sion may  have  weighed  with  Henry,  Cromwell's  tactful 
courage  had  at  any  rate  its  due  reward.  Within  twelve 
months  of  the  martyrdom  of  its  author  at  Vilvorde,  the 
translation  which  "  either  with  glosses  or  without "  had 
been  denounced,  abused,  and  burnt  at  St  Paul's,  was 
now,  under  its  assumed  name,  formally  approved  by  the 
King's  grace,  and  published,  together  with  Coverdale's 
Bible,  under  the  shelter  of  a  royal  proclamation  and 
license. 

Perhaps  the  simplest  explanation  of  what  seems  to 
us  now  so  puzzling  is  that  Henry,  who  at  this  period  may 
be  held  to  have  reached  the  high-water  mark  of  such 
sympathy  as  he  ever  came  to  feel  with  the  reformers, 
altogether  failed  to  realise  the  vastness  of  the  issues  with 
which  his  ecclesiastical  policy  was  confronting  the  world.* 
So  far  was  he  from  treating  the  question  of  an  English 
Bible  with  any  real  religious  earnestness  that  he  appears 
to  have  viewed  it  almost  exclusively  in  its  bearing  on 

*  Green's  History  of  the  English  People  {1877),  ii.,  pp.  218-19. 


HENRY'S  BLINDNESS  TO  ISSUES  INVOLVED     187 

problems  of  state,  and  in  the  light  therefore  of  a  political 
shuttle-cock.  Even  within  a  year  or  so  of  his  death,  and 
in  his  last  address  to  Parliament,  he  shows  this  same  in- 
capacity of  appreciation,  and  speaks  as  if  the  breaking  up 
of  Christendom  under  his  very  eyes  was  nothing  but  a 
quarrel,  of  "  opinions  and  of  names  devised  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  same"  such  as  Lutheran,  and  Papist,  and 
Anabaptist ;  a  matter  indeed  for  regret,  but  one  which  a 
little  charity  and  a  little  good  sense  could  easily  adjust. 
As  with  the  war  of  the  bees  in  Virgil's  Georgics,  so  was 
it  in  the  King's  sight  with  the  angry  hives  of  religious 
combatants : 

"  Hi  motus  animorum,  atque  haec  certamina  tanta, 
Pulveris  exigui  jactu  compressa  quiescunt." 

Gear.  iv.  85. 

"  Yet  all  these  dreadful  deeds,  this  deadly  fray, 
A  cast  of  scattered  dust  will  soon  allay." 

— Dryden. 

Whether,  had  we  lived  in  his  reign,  we  should  have 
been  more  far-sighted  than  this  Tudor  of  the  Tudors 
who  will  dare  to  say  ?  To  be  wise  after  the  event  is  so 
easy.  It  was  with  a  light  heart  that  Henry  raised  the 
sluices,  but  the  torrent  that  presently  ran  through  them 
proved  to  be  as  much  beyond  his  control  as  it  is  at  this 
very  hour  beyond  our  own. 

We  come  now  to  one  of  the  best  known  of  our 
English  versions,  namely,  the  Great  Bible,  or  "  Bible  of 
the  largest  volume,"  and  with  a  sketch  of  this  edition  we 
shall  bring  the  present  chapter  to  an  end. 

After  the  year   1537  there  were,  as  we  have  seen, 


1 88     COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

two  quite  different  and  distinct  Bibles  in  licensed 
circulation  side  by  side.  One  of  these,  Coverdale's 
own  Bible,  was  neither  accurate  nor  from  originals. 
The  other,  or  the  joint  Tyndale-Coverdale  Bible,  might 
at  any  time  be  getting  its  promoters  into  trouble  if 
Gardiner  and  his  friends  should  succeed  in  unmasking 
the  pseudo-Matthew,  and  in  fixing  the  attention  of 
the  vacillating  King  on  the  doctrinal  leanings  of  this 
particular  edition.  Under  these  circumstances  Crom- 
well applied  once  more  to  Coverdale,  the  indefatigable 
reviser,  who,  in  the  "  Dedication  "  prefixed  to  his  Bible, 
had  already  expressed  his  readiness  to  return  to  the 
work  of  which  he  was  then  only  presenting  the  first 
fruits.  "  I  am  always  willing  and  ready,"  he  had 
written,  "  to  do  my  best  as  well  in  one  translation  as 
in  another" 

Coverdale  was  accordingly  entrusted  with  the  pre- 
paration of  yet  a  third  and  revised  Bible,  which  was 
to  be  based  on  the  text  of  the  "  Matthew  "  edition,  and 
which  was  designed,  among  other  things,  to  be  a  very 
prodigy  of  typography.  As  a  translation  it  was  to  be 
brought,  as  far  as  possible,  into  a  more  faithful  relation 
to  the  Hebrew  and  Latin  texts  by  the  help  of  the 
Complutensian  Polyglot.  Though  Coverdale  was  but 
an  indifferent  Hebrew  scholar,  he  was  still  quite  able 
to  avail  himself  of  the  labours  of  others,  and,  as  re- 
vising editor  of  the  seven  successive  versions  of  the 
Great  Bible,  this  is  what  in  point  of  fact  he  appears 
to  have  done. 

In  respect  of  the  Old  Testament  the  Great  Bible  is 
practically  Roger's  compilation  {i.e.,  "  Matthew's  "  Bible) 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  GREAT  BIBLE         189 

corrected  by  aid  of  the  Latin  translation  of  Sebastian 
Munster,  which  had  come  out  while  Coverdale's  Bible 
of  1535  was  in  the  Press,  and  which  was  far  more  literal 
and  trustworthy  than  the  Zurich  version.  In  respect  of 
the  New  Testament  it  is  Tyndale's  version  revised  by 
reference  to  the  Latin  of  Erasmus,  and  by  aid  of  the 
Vulgate.  It  is  owing,  we  may  observe,  to  the  Vulgate 
that  the  Great  Bible  made  a  very  considerable  number 
of  slight  additions  to  the  text,*  and  for  that  reason  was 
never  popular  with  the  reformers.  It  is  worth  remark- 
ing that  in  this  Bible  one  serious  mistranslation  is  intro- 
duced which  Tyndale  had  avoided  and  which  was  left 
undisturbed  till  1881,  viz.,  the  rendering  ''Jcld"  in  lieu 
oi'' flock"  in  John  x.  16. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1538,  Coverdale,  and  Richard 
Grafton,  whom  Cromwell  had  associated  with  him,  went 
over  to  Paris  to  join  the  great  French  printer,  Regnault, 
who,  under  a  special  license  from  King  Francis,  had 
undertaken  to  supervise  the  necessary  printing  arrange- 
ments, which  had  been  designed  on  a  scale  to  which  the 
English  press  of  that  day  would  have  been  altogether 
unequal. 

In  spite  of  the  French  King's  authorisation  the 
party  seem  from  the  very  outset  to  have  worked  in 
daily  dread  of  the  Inquisition,  for  there  was  an 
ominous  clause  in  the  license  which  prohibited  '' ullas 
privatas  aiit  illegitimas  opinionesy  As  a  precautionary 
measure  they  made  use  of  the  good  offices  of  Bonner, 

*  E.g.^  the  supplementary  clauses  in  Matt.  xxvi.  53  ;  Luke  xxiv. 
36;  Acts  XV.  34-41;  Rom.  1-32;  James  v.  3;  II.  Peter  i-io; 
I.  Tim.  iv.  13. 


I90    COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

then  Bishop-elect  of  Hereford,  and  Ambassador  at 
Paris.  As  Ambassador  he  had  the  invaluable  privilege 
of  travelling  without  having  his  luggage  overhauled. 
Accordingly  a  little  before  Christmas,  when  the  new 
Bible  was  far  advanced,  Coverdale,  in  order  to  be  on 
the  safe  side,  packed  off  his  finished  sheets  from  Paris 
through  Bonner  to  Cromwell.  Scarcely  had  he  done  so, 
when  on  the  17th  December  an  order  of  confiscation 
from  the  Inquisitor  General  burst  like  a  bomb-shell 
upon  the  little  company,  and  Regnault  was  promptly 
cited.  The  officer  who  had  been  charged  with  the 
prompt  destruction  of  the  printed  leaves  was  most 
probably  bribed  to  contravene  his  orders.  "Four 
great  dry  vats"  of  printed  matter  were  sold  as  waste 
paper  to  a  haberdasher,  and,  having  been  re-sold  by 
him  to  Cromwell's  agents,  were  sent  over  to  London, 
whither  Grafton  and  Coverdale  had  already  fled. 
Cromwell  then  bought  up  the  type  and  the  presses 
from  Regnault,  and  had  them  conveyed,  together  with 
Regnault's  staff  of  compositors,  across  the  Channel,  and 
in  April  1539  the  first  edition  of  this  magnificent  speci- 
men of  the  art  of  printing  was  ready  for  publication. 

The  Great  Bible  is  a  large  folio,  in  black  letter, 
without  notes,  and  without  any  dedication.  Its  title- 
page  reads  as  follows :  "  The  Byble  in  Englyshe,  that 
is  to  saye  the  content  of  all  the  holy  scripture,  bothe 
of  the  old  and  newe  testament,  truly  translated  after 
the  veryte  of  the  Hebrue  and  Greke  textes  by  the 
dylygent  studye  of  dyuerse  excellent  learned  men, 
expert  in  the  forsayde  tongues.  Prynted  by  Rychard 
Grafton    &    Edward   Whitchurch.     Cum  privilegio  ad 


HOLBEIN  ENGRAVING. 


[Face  p.  191. 


C   'ERDALE  DISAPPOINTED  OF  HIS  NOTES    191 

uiiprrendum  solum,  1539."  It  at  once  took  rank  as 
the     uthorised  version  "  of  its  time. 

\i.o  may  have  been  intended  by  the  "diverse 
leamd  men "  to  whom  the  title  refers  cannot  now  be 
asceriined.  If  the  reference  had  been  not  to  the 
trans.tors  of  various  versions,  but  to  living  scholars 
workig  under  the  supervision  of  Coverdale,  it  is 
reasoable  to  suppose  that  some  allusion  to  them 
woul*  be  found  in  his  letters.     But  such  is  not  the  case. 

Te  compulsory  omission  of  all  notes  was  a  sore 
troub  to  the  translator.  His  annotations  were  ready, 
and,  s  the  brief  preface  tells  us,  they  had  even  been 
place  before  "  the  King's  most  honourable  Council  for 
overs,^ht  and  correction."  Not  only  so,  but  there  was 
an  eloorate  apparatus  of  "  pointing  hands,"  etc.,  speci- 
ally csigned  to  direct  attention  to  them,  and  Cover- 
dale  ad  even  offered  to  submit  them  all  for  Bishop 
Bonnr's  examination  before  publication.  But  annota- 
tions nd  glosses  were  in  this  time  in  very  bad  repute  ; 
Henr  himself  had  a  horror  of  them,  and  "  the  most 
honorable  Council"  would  have  nothing  to  say  to 
them  so  that  the  Great  Bible  had  to  be  printed  with 
Coveiale's  "hands"  pointing  as  it  were  in  vacuo,  and 
bearii^  their  silent  and  sorrowful  witness  to  his  dis- 
appoited  hopes,  and  to  a  scheme  which  was  destined 
neverto  be  carried  out. 

Oe  great  feature  of  this  Bible  is  the  frontispiece, 

whicMs  said  to  have   been  designed   for   it  by  "Hans 

Holbm,  to  which  we  shall  return  again.*     It  is  a  large 

*  ?e  Froude's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  82,  where,  however,  the  Hol- 
bein esfraving  is  referred  in  error  to  the  Coverdale  Bible. 


1 92     CO  VERB  ALE,  MA  TTHE  JV,  AND  GREA  T  BIBLES 

engraving,  measuring  about  fourteen  inches  by  nine, 
and  throws  a  remarkably  clear  light  on  the  ab- 
solute authority  which  The  Throne  was  conceived 
to  wield. 

In  the  upper  part  The  Saviour  is  represented  as 
looking  down  on  the  King  from  the  clouds.  Two  Latin 
scrolls  are  coming  from  his  lips,  the  one  from  Isaiah  Iv. 
II,  the  other  from  Acts  xiii.  22.  This  latter  is  directed 
towards  Henry,  who  in  the  upper  right  hand  corner 
of  the  engraving  is  kneeling  with  his  crown  laid  on 
the  ground,  and  making  answer,  "  Thy  word  is  a  lamp 
unto  my  feet"  Immediately  below  the  figure  of  Christ 
the  King  is  shown  sitting  on  his  throne  with  the  royal 
arms  and  motto  underneath  it.  This  is  the  dominant 
subject  of  the  picture.  Henry  is  seen  handing  the 
Bible  on  the  one  side  to  Cranmer,  who  is  without  his 
mitre,  and  behind  whom  stand  the  clergy,  and  on  the 
other  side  to  Cromwell,  also  bare-headed,  behind  whom 
stand  the  nobles.  Somewhat  lower  down  the  figures 
of  Cranmer  and  Cromwell  are  repeated,  and  we  see 
them  handing  the  scriptures  to  the  bishops  and  laity. 
In  the  lower  part  of  the  engraving  there  appears  a 
preacher  in  a  pulpit  addressing  an  enthusiastic  congre- 
gation, some  of  whom  are  shouting  "  Vivat  Rex!" 
and  some  "  God  save  the  Kynge ! "  In  the  corner  we 
see  a  group  of  political  prisoners  looking  on  through 
their  window  bars,  apparently  in  grim  disgust  at  the 
loyalty  of  the  crowd. 

The  Great  Bible  is  often  spoken  of  as  "  Cranmer's 
Bible,"  but  this  title  is  a  misnomer.  The  promoter  of 
the  revision  was  Cromwell ;  the  editor  was  Coverdale ; 


THE  GREAT  BIBLE  NOT  CRANMEWS  193 

the  printers  were  Regnault,  the  famous  French  typo- 
graphist,  and  Grafton;  and  with  the  edition  of  1539 
Cranmer  had  personally  little  or  nothing  to  do. 

The  misnomer  has  very  naturally  grown  out  of  the 
fact  that  the  Primate  composed  an  elaborate  preface, 
in  excellent  English  of  the  Tudor  type,  which  was 
printed  in  1 540  as  an  introduction  to  the  second  edition, 
and  which  was  reproduced  in  all  the  five  later  editions. 
With  regard  to  this  preface,  which  though  very  practical 
is  somewhat  lengthy,  it  is  curious  that  on  the  same 
day  (November  14,  1539)  on  which  the  Archbishop 
wrote  to  Cromwell  to  ask  whether  he  had  obtained 
Henry's  approval  of  it,  Cromwell  had  received  from  the 
King  a  patent,  ''per  ipsum  regefii"  " by  the  authority 
of  the  King  himself"  (ignoring  Parliament,  Council, 
and  Convocation  alike),  which  conferred  on  the  ecclesi- 
astical Vicegerent  direct  and  absolute  authority  to 
control  the  licensing  of  English  Bibles  for  the  next 
five  years. 

Not  anticipating  the  interruption  which  was  caused 
by  the  volcanic  zeal  of  the  Inquisition,  Cromwell  had 
prepared  the  way  for  the  Great  Bible  by  an  injunction 
framed  as  early  as  1536,  but  not  issued  until  September 
1538,  in  virtue  of  which  all  clergy  were  ordered  to 
provide  before  a  specified  day  "one  boke  of  the  whole 
Bible,  in  the  largest  volume^  in  Englyshe,  sett  up  in  summe 
convenyent  place  within  the  churche  that  ye  have  cure 
of,  whereat  your  parishioners  may  most  commodiously 
resort  to  the  same  and  rede  yt."  This  injunction  had 
all  the  authority  of  a  royal  proclamation,  and  thus, 
within  thirteen  years  of  the  burning  of  Tyndale's  New 

N 


1 94     CO  VERB  ALE,  MA  TTHE  JV,  AND  GREA  T  BIBLES 

Testaments  at  St  Paul's,  the  battle  of  the  English  Bible 
had  been  finally  won.  First  forbidden  ;  then  silently- 
tolerated;  and  next  licensed,  it  was  now  commanded 
by  the  King's  Highness  to  be  set  up  for  the  benefit  of 
each  one  of  the  eleven  thousand  parishes  in  the  land- 
In  the  rapidly  growing  spirit  of  the  age  the  newly- 
opened  Scriptures  found  an  ally  far  too  powerful  for 
the  forces  of  reaction. 

The  impression  which  we  drive  from  the  Holbein 
engraving  is  confirmed  by  Strype*  in  his  life  of 
Cranmer. 

"  It  was  wonderful,"  we  there  read,  "  to  see  with  what  joy  this 
book  of  God  was  received,  not  only  among  the  learned  sort,  but 
generally,  all  England  over,  among  all  the  vulgar  and  common 
people,  and  with  what  greediness  God's  Word  was  read.  Every- 
body that  could  bought  the  book,  or  busily  read  it,  or  got  others  to 
read  it  to  them." 

Collier,  the  ecclesiastical  historian,  prints  a  paper 
found  in  the  public  archives  and  relating  to  the  year 
1539,  which  points  to  the  effect  of  the  open  Bible  on 
literary  tastes.  "  Englishmen  have  now  in  hand,  in 
every  church  and  place,  the  Holy  Bible  in  their  mother 
tongue,  instead  of  the  old  fabulous  atid fantastical  books  of 
the  Table  Round,  Lancelot  du  Lake,  Bevis  of  Hampton, 
Guy  of   Warwick,  etc.,  and   such  other,  whose  impure 

*  Strype  is  invaluable  as  a  collector  of  historical  materials,  but 
the  power  of  sifting  evidence  is  not  one  of  his  gifts,  and  he  borrows 
freely  from  Foxe.  It  is  unfortunate,  for  the  interests  of  history, 
that  our  ideas  of  what  happened  at  the  Reformation  should 
have  come  to  us  through  such  highly  prejudiced  sources  as  Foxe 
and  Bale,  zealots  in  whose  eyes  Protestantism  could  apparently 
do  no  wrong  and  speak  no  guile. 


DISORDERLINESS  OF  NEW  PROTESTANTISM    195 

filth  and  vain  fabulosity  the  light  of  God  has  abolished 
utterly."  * 

But  the  picture  has  its  reverse  side.  Henry  had 
accompanied  his  concession  with  a  condition  which 
many  of  his  humbler  subjects  were  by  far  too  much 
excited,  and  far  too  unscrupulous,  to  observe.  He  had 
directed  every  preacher  to  charge  his  congregation  to 
use  the  new  translation  "  humbly  and  reverently,"  "  not 
having  thereof  any  open  reasoning  in  your  taverns  or 
alehouses,"  but  reading  it  "  quietly  and  charitably  every 
of  you  to  the  edifying  of  himself,  his  wife  and  family." 
(Strype's  Cramner,  ii.,  735.) 

Bonner's  experience  in  old  St  Paul's  was  but  too 
probably  the  experience  of  many  another  Cathedral  as 
well.  The  bishop  had  bought  six  copies  of  this 
splendid  folio,  had  located  them  so  as  to  be  readily 
accessible  to  the  public,  and  had  hung  up  over  each 
copy  directions  as  to  the  orderly  use  of  the  book,  drawn 
up  in  the  same  spirit  as  the  King's.  The  new  Pro- 
testantism, however,  was  disorderly  in  the  extreme,  and 
there  was  in  consequence  a  wanton  and  reckless  dis- 
regard of  restrictions  whose  very  reasonable  aim  it  was 
to  secure  decency  and  reverence  in  the  use  of  the  open 
Bible. 

The  Reformation  spirit  was  too  strong  for  men  who 
had  no  mental  balance.  They  were  drunk  with  the  new 
wine,  and  liberty  degenerated  with  them  into  disreput- 
able and  offensive  license.  The  preacher  in  the  pulpit 
often  found  his  exhortations  completely  drowned  in  a 
tumult  of  voices  shouting  verses  of  the  Bible  out  aloud  in 
*  Ecclesiastical  History, '\ii.^  162.     London,  1852. 


196    COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

various  parts  of  the  church,  and  occasionally  adding  to 
them  certain  improvised  expositions.  So  great  was  the 
resulting  chaos  that  the  bishop  was  obliged  to  threaten 
the  removal  of  the  books,  unless  the  rules  laid  down 
concerning  their  use  were  better  observed. 

The  Great  Bible  went  through  no  less  than  seven 
editions  in  about  two  years,  and  between  the  issue  of 
the  third  and  fourth  of  these  editions,  Cromwell,  to 
whose  enterprise  we  saw  this  version  to  have  been 
originally  due,  had  been  abandoned  by  his  master  to 
the  vindictiveness  of  his  countless  enemies,  and  sent 
savagely  to  the  block.  His  heraldic  arms,  which  figure 
in  the  first  three  editions,  are  accordingly  absent  from 
the  last  four.  The  specially  illuminated  copy  on  vellum 
which  was  prepared  in  his  personal  honour,  and  duly 
presented  to  him  in  1539,  is  among  the  chief  treasures 
of  the  library  of  St  John's  College,  Cambridge. 

This  Bible  "  of  largest  volume  "  had  a  reign  of  some 
thirty  years,  and  remains  up  to  this  very  day  the  only 
formally  "authorised"  English  version.  It  embodies 
Coverdale's  maturest  work  as  a  revising  editor.  Our 
Prayer-Book,  in  whose  services  the  extracts  from  Scrip- 
ture are  for  the  most  part  derived  from  King  James's 
Bible,  has  a  note  announcing  that  it  takes  its  Psalter 
from  this  Bible  ;  but  the  offertory  sentences  in  the 
Communion  Service,  and  the  "  Comfortable  words,"  to 
which  a  like  derivation  has  sometimes  been  ascribed, 
are  not  borrowed  verbatim  from  any  known  version,  but 
are,  in  all  probability,  Cranmer's  own  personal  work. 
The  fourth  edition  of  the  Great  Bible,  issued  in 
November   1540,  recites    in    its  title   that  it  has  been 


THE  TA  VERNER  BIBLE  197 

"  oversene  and  perused  by  the  ryghte  reverende  fathers 
in  God,  Cuthbert  bisshop  of  Duresme,  and  Nicolar 
bisshop  of  Rochester." 

This  episcopal  authorisation  was  by  the  King's 
command.  The  reason  which  rendered  it  expedient 
was,  that  the  Great  Bible  being  Cromwell's  child,  the 
taint  of  his  disgrace,  and  the  suspicion  of  heresy  under 
which  he  had  fallen,  had  affected  its  reputation  as  an 
orthodox  version.  This  Cuthbert  of  Duresme  was 
no  other  than  the  Cuthbert  Tunstall  who  had  refused 
the  hospitality  of  his  palace  to  Tyndale,  and  who  had 
subsequently  burnt  the  book  on  which,  under  its  changed 
garb,  he  now  pronounced  his  official  and  literary 
blessing. 

ft  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  include  the 
Taverner  Bible  of  1539  in  this  historical  sketch,  for 
it  is  little  more  than  the  revision  by  a  private 
scholar  of  "  Matthew's "  edition,  and  has  not  exerted 
any  influence  upon  the  literary  succession.  Nevertheless 
some  of  Taverner's  happiest  renderings  yet  survive  in 
our  current  version,  such  for  example  as  "  parable  "  for 
"  similitude  "  ;  "  the  love  of  many  shall  wax  cold  "  ;  "  the 
Israel  of  God." 

It  is  from  the  setting  up  of  the  Great  Bible  in  parish 
churches  that  the  ever-widening  influence  of  the  Gospel 
teaching  on  English  life  may  be  said  both  officially  and 
practically  to  date.* 

Hard  upon  the  latest  issue  of  this  revision  in  1 541 
there  followed   the    so-called    Catholic    reaction   which 
marked  the  last  years  of  Henry's  life,  and  the  temporary 
*  Green's  History.^  iii.,  pp.  10-13, 


198     COVERDALE,  MATTHEW,  AND  GREAT  BIBLES 

ascendency  of  Bishop  Gardiner.  The  English  Bible  was 
not  suppressed,  for  such  a  thing  was  no  longer  possible ; 
but,  so  far  as  legal  enactments  could  influence  practice, 
the  liberty  of  reading  it  was  sensibly  restricted  in  1 543, 
and  no  fresh  translation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  was 
made  until  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  the  period 
that  intervened  Rogers  and  Cranmer  both  suffered 
martyrdom  at  the  stake,  and  even  Coverdale's  life  was 
with  difficulty  saved  by  his  flight  into  foreign  climes. 


THE  GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND   DOUAI  BIBLES 


"  We  must  not  imagine  that  in  the  primitive  Church,  either  every 
one  that  understood  the  learned  tongues,  might  without  reprehen- 
sion, read,  reason,  dispute,  turn  and  toss  the  Scriptures  ;  or  that  our 
forefathers  suffered  every  schoohnaster,  scholar,  or  grammarian 
that  had  a  little  Greek  or  Latin,  straight  to  take  in  hand  the 
holy  Testament :  or  that  the  translated  Bibles  were  in  the  hands 
of  every  husbandman,  artificer,  prentice,  boys,  girls,  mistress,  maid, 
man :  that  they  were  sung,  played,  alleged,  of  every  tinker, 
tavemer,  rimer,  minstrel :  that  they  were  for  table-talk,  for  ale- 
benches,  for  boats  and  barges,  and  for  every  profane  person  and 
company." 

"The  poor  ploughman  could  then,  in  labouring  the  ground, 
sing  the  hymns  and  psalms  either  in  known  or  unknown  languages, 
as  they  heard  them  in  the  holy  Church,  though  they  could  neither 
read  nor  know  the  sense,  meaning  and  mysteries  of  the  same.  .  .  . 
Then  the  Virgins  did  meditate  upon  the  places  and  examples 
of  chastity,  modesty,  and  demureness  :  the  married  on  conjugal 
faith  and  continency  :  the  parents  how  to  bring  up  their  children 
in  the  faith  and  fear  of  God  :  the  prince  how  to  rule  :  the  subject 
how  to  obey  :  the  priest  how  to  teach :  the  people  how  to  learn. 
Then  the  scholar  taught  not  his  master,  the  sheep  controlled  not 
the  pastor,  the  young  student  set  not  the  doctor  to  school,  nor 
reproved  their  fathers  of  error  and  ignorance." 

{Prejace  to  the  Rheims  New  Testament^ 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  GENEVAN,   BISHOPS',  AND   DOUAI   BIBLES 

As  was  seen  in  the  last  chapter  the  position  of  the 
Great  Bible,  fortified  as  it  had  come  to  be  by  episcopal 
supervision  and  approval,  proved  to  be  but  little 
affected  by  the  sudden  downfall  of  Cromwell,  to  whose 
initiative  it  was  due. 

But  with  Cromwell  fell  his  Protestant  policy,  and 
the  period  of  reaction  which  dates  from  his  death  has 
caused  the  year  1540  to  be  something  of  a  landmark 
in  the  history  of  our  subject. 

We  propose,  therefore,  briefly  to  recall  the  circum- 
stances under  which  the  career  of  the  all-powerful 
minister  to  whom,  as  Henry's  Vicegerent,  we  owe 
our  ecclesiastical  independence,  was  brought  with  such 
tragic  abruptness  to  an  end. 

Let  us  revert  then  for  a  moment  to  the  Holbein 
engraving,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made 
as  forming  the  frontispiece  of  the  Great  Bible.  It  is 
impossible  to  mistake  its  significance. 

If  it  means  anything  it  means  that,  in  the  eyes  of 
those  around  him,  Henry  VIII.  was  himself  the  English 
Reformation.     For  he  is  the  centre  and  the  soul  of  the 

20\ 


202      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

picture.  Not  Parliament,  not  Convocation,  not  the 
Council,  neither  Cromwell  himself  nor  Cranmer,  bui 
the  King's  Grace  it  is,  that,  under  the  guidance  o 
Providence,  presents  the  Bible  to  Cranmer  and  Crom 
well,  as  representing  respectively  the  clergy  and  lait) 
of  his  realm.  And  this  Bible  was  then,  and  is  now 
and  always  will  be,  the  sheet-anchor  of  English  Pro 
testantism. 

To  express  our  meaning  in  other  words,  the  Refor 
mation  of  Cromwell's  day,  for  the  results  of  which  w< 
may  be  thankful  without  thinking  too  highly  of  it; 
methods,  was  from  above,  not  from  below ;  royal  no 
popular ;  political  not  doctrinal ;  gradual  not  revolu 
tionary.  With  all  Henry's  faults,  and  they  were  manj 
and  great,  we  at  least  owe  to  him  this,  that  Englanc 
managed  to  weather  a  tremendous  crisis  in  her  histor) 
without  any  Thirty  Years  War.  He  packed  Parliament 
he  terrorised  Convocation ;  he  made  judges  and  juriei 
accomplices  in  his  unrighteous  deeds ;  but  he  neithei 
ignored  nor  suppressed  any  one  of  these  bodies,  anc 
by  thus  draping  his  despotic  powers  in  the  old  con 
stitutional  forms,  he  unconsciously  safeguarded,  unti 
the  coming  of  more  settled  days,  the  liberties  of  th( 
land. 

It  is  true  that  we  can  point  to  no  individua 
reformer  in  England  who  stands  out  so  prominently  a: 
either  Luther,  or  Zwingli,  or  Calvin  ;  but  neither  car 
the  Continent  point  to  any  actor  in  the  drama  whc 
surpasses  Henry  in  his  prodigious  force  of  character 
and  in  his  capacity  for  dealing  vigorously  with  grea 
issues.     The  times  called  for  a  strong  personality,  anc 


HENRY  VITl.  AND  THE  REFORMATION        203 

not  even  his  enemies  will  venture  to  deny  that  the 
old  lion  was  at  least  possessed  of  immense  strength. 
But  we  must  proceed  with  our  more  immediate 
subject. 

Henry  was  politically  a  Protestant,  because  he  could 
not  avoid  it.  So  long  as  he  was  occupied  in  the  final 
emancipation  of  his  country  from  the  Roman  juris- 
diction ;  In  sweeping  into  the  State  coffers  the  spoils  of 
those  monasteries,  and  abbeys,  and  chantries,  in  which 
there  lay  enshrined  the  innermost  spirit  of  the  old 
society  ;  in  dragooning  the  catholic  clergy  ;  and  in  keep- 
ing a  watchful  eye  on  Charles  V.,  who  might  at  any  time 
be  invading  England  in  order  to  avenge  the  injuries 
of  the  Papacy,  it  was  plainly  inevitable  that  he  should 
wear  the  colours  of  a  party  for  whose  religious  doctrines 
he  all  along  entertained  an  honest  personal  dislike.  If 
it  be  permissible  to  parody  a  well-known  saying,  we 
might  fairly  put  into  his  mouth  the  words,  ^^ Arnica 
Ecclesia,  sed  inagis  amicus  rex." 

It  was,  indeed,  no  light  matter  for  him  that  his 
quarrel  with  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church  involved 
the  risk  of  war  either  with  the  champion  of 
Catholicism,  the  most  powerful  monarch  of  the  age, 
or  else  with  Francis,  or  possibly  with  both.  The  jealous 
rivalry  between  France  and  Spain  might  make  it 
practicable  for  diplomacy  to  play  the  one  off  against 
the  other,  but  it  still  remained  desirable  to  make 
temporary  use  of  the  Lutheran  Princes  as  a  make- 
weight in  the  political  balance. 

For  a  while,  therefore,  Cromwell  was  given  a  free 
hand,  and  for  a  while,  too,  and  in  so  far  forth  as  appeal 


204      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

could  be  made  to  the  Scriptures  as  rebutting  the  claims 
of  Rome  to  supreme  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  the 
cause  of  the  English  Bible  was  safe  under  the  royal 
aegis.  But  in  the  nature  of  things  a  reaction  was 
inevitable.  Despotic  as  was  the  Tudor  rule,  it  may 
be  questioned  whether  at  any  time  in  our  annals  more 
anxious  pains  have  been  taken  by  those  in  power  to 
keep  in  touch  with  national  feeling,  and  to  govern  in 
accordance  with  the  ascertained  wishes  and  interests 
of  the  people  at  large.  Accordingly,  when  in  1536 
there  broke  out  that  sudden  insurrection  in  the  North, 
which  is  known  to  history  as  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace — a  movement  which,  for  brevity's  sake,  may  be 
described  as  a  revolt  against  the  aims  and  methods  of 
Cromwell — the  King  received  a  severe  shock.  So  un- 
mistakable an  ebullition  of  popular  feeling  served  to 
open  his  eyes  and  to  give  him  pause. 

Already  the  Protestants  among  his  subjects  had 
sorely  vexed  and  irritated  him  by  their  disorderly  use 
or  abuse  of  the  Great  Bible,  the  sacred  words  of  which, 
as  he  bitterly  complained,  "  were  disputed,  7'imed,  sung, 
and  jangled  in  every  alehouse^  They  had  incensed 
him  still  further  by  their  ribald  plays  and  ballads,  in 
mockery  of  the  old  religion,  and  by  the  gross  irrever- 
ence and  profanity  with  which,  in  the  intoxication  of 
their  religious  zeal,  they  treated  the  sacraments  and 
venerable  customs  of  the  Church.  At  a  glance  Henry 
took  in  the  position.  Whatever  the  towns  might  be 
thinking,  the  country  conservatives  were  becoming 
seriously  disaffected.  It  was  one  thing  for  them  to 
be   well   quit  of   an    Italian    over-lord,   but  a  wholly 


THE  FALL  OF  CROMWELL  205 

different  thing  to  see  friendly  monks  and  abbots  forcibly 
dispossessed  and  insulted  ;  shrines  and  images  pulled 
down ;  pilgrimages  and  holy-days  suppressed  ;  sacred 
and  beautiful  buildings  wrecked  ;  and  all  the  old  religious 
life  which  the  country  folk  still  loved  and  cherished, 
torn  brutally  up  by  the  roots. 

The  ecclesiastical  Vicegerent  must  be  made  the 
scapegoat.  Cromwell  had  been  travelling  too  fast.  He 
was  now  seriously  endangering  the  popularity  which 
was  to  Henry  as  the  very  breath  of  his  life.  He  had 
drawn  the  orthodox  "  Defender  of  the  Faith  "  into  the 
semblance  of  too  close  an  alliance  with  the  detested 
continental  reformers.  He  was  alienating  the  loyal 
Catholic  population,  and  imperilling  the  authority  of 
the  King-Pope  over  his  divided  religious  house- 
hold. 

There  must  be  a  change.  The  foreign  Lutherans 
were  no  longer  an  essential  factor  in  the  political  situa- 
tion, and  they  might  go  their  own  way.  The  danger 
which  had  been  imminent,  so  long  as  Catherine  remained 
alive  to  remind  Charles  V.  of  the  insult  that  had  been 
levelled  both  at  his  own  family  and  at  the  cause  of 
Catholicism,  was  now  passed.  Doubtless  Cranmer  was 
a  useful  tool,  but  he  was  not  the  only  able  ecclesiastic 
in  the  Council.  There  was  his  equally  zealous  counter- 
weight, Stephen  Gardiner.  If  the  new  Protestantism 
could  not  behave  itself,  and  if  it  was  dissatisfied  with 
the  comparatively  Lutheran  tone  of  the  Confession  of 
the  "  Ten  Articles,"  it  must  be  made  to  hear  the  crack 
of  the  Tudor  whip  in  the  Confession  of  the  "  Six 
Articles"  with   all  its   terrible   sanctions.     And   as  for 


2o6     GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

Cromwell  he  was  no  longer  needed.  His  work  was 
done.  He  had  replenished  the  royal  exchequer  with  the 
proceeds  of  the  plundered  monasteries,  and  had  eased 
matters  for  Henry's  political  indolence  by  taking  the 
whole  burden  of  administration  on  his  shoulders.  His 
foreign  diplomacy  was  now  said  to  be  open  to  grave 
suspicion.  He  had  begun  to  forget  who  was  the  real 
master  of  the  house.  Very  possibly,  too,  he  was  a 
heretic.  In  any  case  he  was  only  in  the  way.  The 
ecclesiastical  vessel  required  trimming,  and  it  could  best 
be  trimmed  by  pitching  him  overboard.  Doubtless  his 
many  enemies  were  watching  eagerly  for  the  withdrawal 
of  the  royal  favour,  and  for  an  opportunity  of  vengeance. 
But  loyalty  to  old  and  faithful  servants  was  never 
Henry's  strong  point.  When  he  had  finished  with  them 
the  hungry  sharks  were  welcome  to  them.  They  could 
be  replaced,  or  if  they  could  not,  he  was  ready  enough 
to  govern  without  any  ministers  at  all. 

Thus,  then,  it  happened  that  during  the  last  years 
of  this  eventful  reign,  the  cause  of  Protestantism,  as 
understood  by  some  of  the  more  aggressive  among  the 
reformers,  passed  under  a  cloud.  Cromwell  was  exe- 
cuted under  a  bill  of  attainder  in  July  1540,  and  one 
effect  of  his  removal  was  that  Coverdale's  "pointing 
hands"  ceased  to  appear  in  the  Great  Bible,  since 
all  hope  of  introducing  annotations  was  now  finally 
extinguished. 

Two  years  later  a  proposal  was  brought  before 
Convocation  for  a  new  version  by  the  bishops,  but 
difficulties  arose,  through  Gardiner,  about  the  rendering 
of  a  long  list  of  ecclesiastical  terms  to  which  the  Vulgate 


THE  KING'S  CHANGE  OF  MOOD  207 

had  for  centuries  given  traditional  sanctity,  and  eventu- 
ally the  project  came  to  nothing.  In  1543  all  Tyndale 
Bibles  were  prohibited,  and  it  was  ordered  that  the 
annotations  and  controversial  matter  in  "Matthew's" 
Bible  should  be  effaced  and  made  illegible.  Before 
long  this  prohibition  was  extended  even  to  Coverdale, 
and  the  extension  was  accompanied  in  1546  by  a 
perfect  holocaust  of  English  Bibles  and  Testaments. 
The  Great  Bible  was  thus  left  to  reign  in  solitary 
grandeur,  while  the  use  of  it  was  by  statute  forbidden 
to  the  great  bulk  of  the  people,  and  was  restricted  to  the 
upper  classes.  In  the  meantime,  terrified  at  the  omin- 
ous change  in  Henry's  mood,  many  of  the  advanced 
reformers  were  flying  for  safety  to  Frankfort,  Strasburg, 
Munich,  and  to  other  friendly  towns  upon  the  Continent. 
Under  Edward  VI.  they  were  welcomed  back  in  crowds 
by  Cranmer  and  by  the  Protectorate,  and  exercised  so 
powerful  an  influence  that,  if  the  young  King's  brief  life 
had  been  prolonged,  England  might  soon  have  become 
a  very  hotbed  of  Calvinism.  The  Marian  persecutions 
drove  them  once  more  headlong  into  exile.  With  the 
accession  of  the  resolute  "  Guardian  of  the  middle  way  " 
they  again  took  courage  and  recrossed  the  sea.  During 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth  they  strove  their  uttermost  to 
find  favour  in  the  royal  sight,  and  to  have  the  Anglican 
Church,  which  stood  midway  between  the  two  extremes 
of  Romanism  and  ultra-Protestantism,  remodelled  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  which  they  had  imbibed 
abroad.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  bear  in 
mind  the  existence,  and  the  untiring  activity,  of  this 
extreme  left  wing  of  the  Reformation.     We  shall  make 


2o8      GENEVAN,  BIS  HOP  S\  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

closer  acquaintance  with  it  by-and-by,  in  connection 
with  the  Genevan  Bible ;  but  first  we  must  complete 
our  brief  review  of  the  twenty  years  that  separate  the 
last  English  version  of  Henry's  reign  from  that  memor- 
able revision  which  made  its  first  appearance  soon  after 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth. 

In  1545  there  occurred  an  event  which  had  no  slight 
effect  in  modifying  the  vacillating  temper  of  the  King. 
Many  a  hopeful  heart  had  looked  forward  to  a  general 
Council  of  the  Church  as  the  best  available  means  of 
securing  its  peaceful  regeneration.  Much  therefore  was 
expected  from  the  first  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 
But  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  Jesuits,  then  as 
always  the  most  dangerous  enemies  of  truth  and  freedom, 
would  carry  the  day,  and  that  Rome  would  emerge  both 
narrower  and  more  uncompromising  than  ever,  and 
also  infinitely  more  in  earnest.  Henry  appears  to  have 
been  seriously  alarmed.  In  his  dread  of  the  Counter- 
Reformation  he  felt  disposed  to  revert  to  the  policy  of 
the  minister  whom,  only  five  years  before,  he  had  so 
cynically  allowed  to  be  beheaded.  He  even  directed 
Cranmer  to  *'/^«  a  form  for  the  alteration  of  the  mass 
into  a  communion^  But  Henry's  days  were  now 
numbered,  and  in  January  1547  he  died.  There  suc- 
ceeded to  the  vacant  throne  his  son  by  the  Protestant 
Jane  Seymour,  a  precocious  boy  of  only  nine  years  old. 
In  defiance  of  the  late  King's  will  the  direction  of  affairs 
was  assumed  by  Jane's  brother,  Edward  Seymour,  under 
the  title  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
engines  were  at  once  reversed. 

It  is  happily  no  part  of  the  business  of  a  historian  of 


THE  ACCESSION  OF  QUEEN  MARY    ""     209 

the  English  Bible  to  record  the  doings  of  that  clique  of 
greedy  nobles  who  formed  the  Council  of  the  Regency. 
With  the  solitary  exception  of  the  invertebrate  but 
amiable  Cranmer,  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  single 
disinterested,  or  unselfish,  or  even  ordinarily  honest  man 
among  them  all. 

No  Jesuit  could  wish  the  Protestant  cause  a  worse 
fate  than  its  exploitation  by  this  band  of  sordid  adven- 
turers, who,  under  the  mask  of  piety,  made  such  frenzied 
haste  to  fill  their  pockets  at  the  expense  of  the  Church. 
Their  works  were  like  unto  them  ;  and  Somerset  House, 
built  with  the  stones  of  St  Mary-le-Strand  and  of  the 
Church  of  the  Knights  of  St  John,  formed  a  suitable 
monument  of  the  plundering  proclivities  of  this  in- 
glorious Protectorate. 

With  Cranmer's  beautiful  compilation,  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  we  are  not  here  concerned  ;  nor  yet 
with  the  general  liturgical  history  of  the  reign  ;  and  we 
rejoice  to  be  able  to  turn  our  backs  on  an  interval  of 
vindictive  vandalism  and  whitewash  which  has  not 
unjustly  been  described  as  "  a  harvest  time  for  thieves, 
and  a  high  holiday  for  the  profane." 

No  new  version  of  the  English  Bible  was  attempted 
under  Edward  VI.,  but  all  restrictions  on  the  printing 
and  reading  of  the  current  versions  were  removed.  It 
was  again  ordered  that  every  parish  should  have  a  copy 
of  the  Great  Bible  set  up  in  church,  and  also  a  copy 
of  the  paraphrase  by  Erasmus  of  the  four  gospels. 
Taverner's  private  translation  was  re-issued,  and  seven 
editions  of  the  Great  Bible,  three  of  Matthew's,  two 
of  Coverdale's,  and  thirty-five  of  the  New  Testament, 

O 


2IO      GENEVAN,  BIS  HOP  S\  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

most  of  them  by  Tyndale,  were  published  between  the 
years  1547  and  1553  inclusive. 

With  the  accession  of  Mary  Tudor  all  the  privileges 
which  from  time  to  time  had  been  conceded  to  the 
study  of  the  Bible  naturally  suffered  eclipse,  and 
England  found  itself  once  more  Roman  Catholic. 
Nevertheless,  the  open  arms  with  which  the  Queen  was 
received  by  the  nation  at  large  supply  the  best  possible 
comment  on  the  lamentable  exhibition  which  had 
recently  been  made  by  the  truculent  Protestantism  of 
the  Protectorate. 

But  if  the  great  mass  of  the  population  had  deeply 
resented  the  violence  of  the  political  raiders  under  the 
rule  of  Somerset  and  of  Northumberland,  they  had  no 
desire  to  be  handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies  either  of 
Rome  or  Spain.  Unfortunately  the  Queen  never  came 
into  any  real  touch  with  her  subjects.  She  failed  to 
understand  either  their  Saxon  love  of  independence  or 
their  love  of  England.  Their  feeling  was  in  favour  of 
the  old  Catholicism  rather  than  the  new  Protestantism, 
but  it  was  in  favour  also  of  ecclesiastical  autocracy. 
The  religion  which  they  desired  for  themselves  was  the 
religion  of  the  old  Church  without  the  Pope ;  a  religion 
of  reverent  services  conducted  in  a  language  which 
they  could  understand,  and  framed  so  as  to  maintain 
as  far  as  possible  intact  their  liturgical  continuity  with 
the  past. 

But  Mary,  who,  if  ill-advised  was  at  least  more 
sincerely  conscientious  than  either  Henry  or  Elizabeth, 
and  who  if  she  shocks  us  by  her  anti-Protestant  fervour, 
yet  honestly  believed  that  Protestantism  and  damnation 


MA R  VS  BL UNDERS  z\  \ 

were  convertible  terms,  was  speedily  guilty  of  three 
initial  diplomatic  blunders.  First,  she  renounced  the 
national  independence,  and  placed  herself  at  the  feet  of 
the  foreign  potentate  from  whose  yoke  her  father  had 
shaken  England  free  ;  next  she  married  a  Spaniard,  and 
a  fanatical  champion  of  the  Inquisition  ;  while  lastly,  by 
her  moody  and  half  insane  barbarity  in  kindling  the 
awful  fires  of  Smithfield,  she  showed  the  whole  world 
that  there  were  among  the  Protestants  brave  earnest 
men  quite  as  ready  to  die  for  their  religion  as  others  of 
baser  metal  were  to   live  upon  it. 

Nothing  could  have  been  better  calculated  than  such 
a  course  as  this  to  render  impossible  for  England  a 
creed  which  relied  upon  such  means  for  its  support,  and 
to  burn  out  of  men's  memories  the  low  estimate  of  the 
reformed  faith  which  their  bitter  experience  of  the  late 
carnival  of  masquerading  Calvinists  had  burnt  into 
them.  The  martyrdom  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  to  take 
only  the  most  conspicuous  example,  did  far  more  to 
further  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  than  all  the 
Queen's  violence  could  do  to  retard  it. 

The  Genevan,  or,  as  it  is  popularly  called,  the 
"  Breeches  Bible,"  *  was  the  offspring  of  the  Marian 
terror.  Among  the  many  Protestant  strongholds  on 
the  Continent  which  offered  hospitality  and  protection 
to  English  exiles,  was  the  Lutheran  city  of  Frankfort. 

*  In  Genesis  iii.  7,  where  the  Authorised  Version  has  "made 
themselves  aprons,"  the  Genevan  Bible  reads  "breeches."  The 
rendering,  however,  is  not  peculiar  to  this  Bible  ;  it  is  to  be  found 
both  in  the  WyclifFe  Bible  and  in  Caxton's  "  Golden  Legend"  where 
we  read  "  took  figge  leuis  and  sewed  them  togyder  in  maner  of 
brechis." 


212      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

No  sooner,  however,  had  the  safety  of  the  fugitives 
been  well  secured  within  its  walls,  than  there  broke 
out  a  stormy  controversy  among  their  leaders  with 
reference  to  the  ritual  system  of  the  revised  English 
Prayer  Book  of  1552.  The  more  moderate  or  conform- 
ing party,  under  the  guidance  of  Richard  Cox,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Ely,  were  prepared  to  abide  by  the 
ceremonial  requirements  of  the  book  as  it  then  stood. 
The  Nonconformists,  represented  by  John  Knox,  who 
had  been  chaplain  to  Edward  VI.,  scented  popery  and 
superstition  in  every  page,  and  declined  to  accept  it  at 
all,  except  as  a  convenient  point  of  departure  for  further 
and  fundamental  changes.  Hotter  and  hotter  waxed 
the  quarrel,  until  in  1555  the  Knox  faction  came  to 
an  open  rupture  with  their  opponents,  and,  shaking  off 
the  dust  of  their  feet  upon  Frankfort,  betook  themselves 
to  the  more  congenial  atmosphere  of  Geneva,  "  the 
holy  city  of  the  Alps,"  the  Mecca  of  the  reformed  faith. 

It  is  to  these  seceding  Calvinists,  the  source  and 
fountainhead  of  that  anti-sacramental  movement  which 
as  years  went  on  gradually  broadened  and  deepened 
into  Puritanism,  that  we  owe  the  Genevan  Bible. 

This  new  version  had  a  wonderful  success.  Between 
1560  and  the  Civil  War,  no  fewer  than  160  editions  of  it 
passed  into  circulation,  sixty  of  them  during  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth  alone.  Though  it  naturally  found  but  little 
favour  at  the  Court,  or  with  Convocation,  its  scholarship 
cast  the  Great  Bible  completely  into  the  shade,  and 
after  1569  no  fresh  issue  of  that  version  was  made. 
For  many  years  it  proved  no  unworthy  rival  even  of 
the   King's  standard    edition,   and    competed    with    it 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  GENEVAN  BIBLE  213 

almost  on  equal  terms  for  popularity.  Throughout 
Scotland  it  speedily  established  itself  as  the  household 
Bible.  In  England  it  was  eagerly  welcomed  by  that 
new  middle  class  *  from  which,  after  the  importation  of 
Calvinism  from  the  Continent,  that  faith  derived  its 
main  supporters ;  a  class  which,  while  it  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  created,  was  at  least  largely  reinforced, 
both  by  the  rapid  expansion  of  trade  and  commerce 
and  by  the  transfer  of  the  abbey-lands. 

It  is  not  without  interest  to  observe  that  during  part 
of  the  years  1558-9,  Miles  Coverdale,  then  seventy  years 
of  age,  was  a  resident  in  Geneva.  In  I539>  3-t  the 
invitation  of  Cromwell,  we  found  him  acting  as  editor 
of  the  Great  Bible.  In  1551  he  was  promoted  to  be 
Bishop  of  Exeter,  only  to  be  deprived  of  his  See  under 
Queen  Mary  and  to  be  obliged  to  fly  for  his  life.  Thus 
the  main  thread  of  his  history  serves  to  connect  the 
most  melodious  of  our  translators,  and  the  most  inde- 
fatigable of  our  revisers,  with  three  of  the  best  known 
Bibles  of  the  Tudor  period,  namely,  his  own  version  of 
1535  ;  the  Great  Bible  of  1539;  and  the  Genevan  Bible 
of  1560,  whose  designation  at  once  associates  it  with 
that  famous  city  which  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  the 
sheet-anchor  of  the  Reformation. 

The  book  cannot  be  properly  appreciated  apart  from 
its  local  parentage,  and  in  order  fully  to  understand 
the  great  popularity  and  prestige  of  the  Genevan  Bible, 
it  is  necessary  to  realise  the  veneration  in  which  the 
name  of  Geneva  had  come  to  be  held  throughout  the 
Protestant  world.  Let  us  briefly  recall  the  main  events 
*  Brewer's  Henry  VIII.,  ii.,  p.  470. 


214      GENEVAN,  BIS  HOP  S\  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

in  her  religious  history  a  generation  or  so  before  the 
year  1560. 

In  1526,  nine  years  after  the  publication  by  Luther 
of  his  famous  Theses,  and  six  years  after  he  had  publicly 
burnt  the  Pope's  bull  at  the  Elster  gate  of  Wittenberg, 
Geneva  had  thrown  off  her  foreign  yoke  and  shaken 
herself  free  from  the  control  of  the  Dukes  of  Savoy.  A 
little  later,  and  as  a  natural  consequence  of  her  political 
emancipation,  she  had  adopted  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  and  had  crowned  her  newly  won  inde- 
pendence by  repudiating  the  spiritual  authority  of  the 
Roman  Bishop. 

But,  in  adopting  the  Reformation,  Geneva  had  by  no 
means  put  off  the  old  Adam  of  her  turbulent  civic  life 
with  all  its  jealousies,  feuds,  and  factions.  William 
Farel,  the  leading  spirit  of  the  Genevan  Church,  was 
not  a  man  of  sufficient  force  of  character  to  cope  with 
so  difficult  a  situation.  He  was  quick,  therefore,  to 
seize  upon  the  happy  accident  of  Calvin's  presence  in 
the  town,  and  to  adjure  him  as  the  chosen  instrument 
of  God's  providence  to  remain  in  Geneva,  and  to  take 
upon  himself  the  lay  directorship  of  that  somewhat 
volcanic  community. 

Under  Calvin's  iron  rule  and  discipline  it  was  not 
long  before  Geneva  came  to  rank  as  the  Wittenberg  of 
the  Reformed  Churches.  Through  her  Academy  she 
provided  a  centre  for  both  classical  and  theological 
learning.  From  Italy,  France,  England,  Germany, 
young  students  flocked  freely  to  her  schools.  Refugees 
from  every  quarter  found  an  asylum  within  her  walls. 
First  resentfully  expelled,  and  then  again  recalled  as 


CALVIN  AND  THE  REFORMATION  215 

indispensable,  Calvin  gave  up  a  life  which  it  had  been 
his  intention  to  dedicate  to  study,  to  the  task  for  the 
accomplishment  of  which  he  had  been  so  unexpectedly 
summoned. 

Imperious,  arrogant,  dictatorial,  and  autocratic  in 
temperament,  he  was  one  of  those  powerful  person- 
alities who  both  know  exactly  what  it  is  they  wish 
to  do,  and  have  the  resolution  and  ability  to  do  it. 
To  the  accomplishment  of  his  mission  the  new  Pope 
of  Geneva  brought  an  inflexible  will  and  a  keenly 
penetrative  judgment.  When  to  these  characteristics 
we  add  his  inexhaustible  energy,  his  French-born  love 
of  system,  his  genius  for  organisation,  his  great  learning, 
and  the  tenacity  of  his  moral  grip,  we  have  a  combina- 
tion of  qualities  in  which  men  recognise  their  natural 
lord  and  master. 

In  the  circumstances  of  the  time  such  a  vigorous 
personality  was  sorely  needed.  Continental  Pro- 
testantism had  reached  a  very  critical  stage  in  its 
progress.  The  initial  impulse  which  had  been  given 
to  it  by  the  creative  energy  of  Luther  was  dying  down. 
As  a  profession  of  faith  it  was  everywhere  beginning 
to  reveal  its  inherent  weakness.  Strong  to  pull  down, 
it  seemed  incapable  of  building  up.  It  was  a  principle 
of  disintegration,  not  a  principle  of  unity.  It  lacked 
coherence,  it  lacked  stability,  it  lacked  organic  vitality. 
It  was,  moreover,  suffering  from  internal  quarrels  of 
the  utmost  bitterness,  for  it  seems  to  be  one  of  the  mis- 
fortunes of  the  human  intellect  that  no  questions  are 
ever  so  furiously  debated  as  those  which  are  incapable 
of  solution.     There  was  therefore  a  real  and  even  an 


2i6     GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

imminent  danger  that  the  Reformation  movement, 
frittering  away  its  early  vigour  in  a  ceaseless  and 
barren  rivalry  of  definitions  and  disputations,  might 
either  perish  of  moral  and  spiritual  inanition,  or  else 
evaporate  and  disappear  in  a  hazy  mist  of  controversial 
speculation. 

That  events  did,  in  fact,  turn  out  otherwise,  is  in  a 
large  measure  due  to  Calvin,  and  to  his  disciples  in 
doctrine,  the  Puritans.  His  eagle  eye  took  in  the 
essential  features  of  the  religious  crisis.  To  the 
practical  intensity  of  his  nature  it  was  manifest  that 
no  spiritual  enthusiasm  could  long  maintain  itself  on 
the  dry  husks  of  theological  dogmas.  While  others 
were  arguing  he  was  acting.  Enforcing  his  rigorous 
principles  upon  the  citizens  of  the  little  state  of  Geneva, 
he  set  himself  to  show  the  world  what  religion  could  do, 
as  a  vitalising  power,  in  the  political  and  social  sphere. 
Self-control  as  the  basis  of  moral  life,  self-sacrifice  as  the 
secret  of  the  common  weal,  the  subordination  of  rights 
to  duties  as  the  foundation  stone  of  political  ethics, 
these  were  his  fundamental  axioms  of  administration. 
Compared  with  the  ''Republic"  of  Plato,  or  with  the 
large-hearted  "  Utopia  "  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  most  of  us 
instinctively  shudder  at  the  narrowness,  the  one-sided- 
ness,  the  doctrinaire  austerity,  the  joyless  acerbity,  of 
the  Calvinistic  discipline.  But  we  have  to  remind  our- 
selves that  it  is  an  easier  thing,  as  the  annals  of  More's 
public  life  may  serve  to  show,  to  construct  abstract 
political  constitutions  than  it  is  to  govern  men,  and  it 
would  be  unjust  to  allow  our  natural  antipathies  to  blind 
us  to  the  plain  evidence  of  historical  fact.     Calvin  was 


CHARACTER  AND  INFLUENCE  OF  CALVIN    217 

the  saviour  of  Geneva,  and  Geneva  was  the  saviour  of 
the  Reformation. 

By  insisting  upon  the  paramount  importance  of 
conduct,  he  once  more  compelled  attention  to  an  ideal 
which  had  been  too  long  discarded — the  ideal  of 
character.  Under  the  stress  of  a  new  sense  of  respon- 
sibility and  moral  obligation  the  little  municipality  of 
Geneva  became,  all  but  in  name,  a  church.  To  Calvin 
she  owed  it  that  her  theology  acquired  system,  and 
her  discipline  organisation.  Throughout  the  sixteenth 
century  we  can  hardly  over-estimate  her  influence. 
Standing  midway  between  the  giant  systems  of  Spain 
and  of  Rome,  she  confronted,  with  her  mere  handful  of 
amateur  soldiery,  a  secular  imperialism  that  was  im- 
patient to  crush  her  on  the  one  side,  and  a  hierarchical 
absolutism,  against  which  she  was  a  living  protest,  on 
the  other.  To  Pope  Pius  V.,  Geneva  was  doubtless 
"a  nest  of  devils  and  apostates,"  as  to  Henry  II.  of 
France  she  was  a  "swarm  of  vermin."  But  to  the 
supporters  of  the  Reformation  she  was  a  fortress  too 
strong  for  the  enemy  to  carry  and  too  dangerous  for 
him  to  ignore ;  a  glad  beacon  of  hope  whose  cheering 
rays  helped  to  light  up  the  dark  places  of  spiritual  and 
temporal  confusion.  For  in  that  small  city-state  men 
saw  the  visible  and  active  embodiment  of  a  conviction 
which  lay  deep  down  in  many  a  thoughtful  mind ;  the 
conviction  that  there  might  subsist  a  political  com- 
munity without  the  Empire,  and  a  Church  of  Christ 
without  the  Papacy. 

The  forerunner  of  the  Genevan  Bible  was  an  English 
New  Testament  which   came   out   in    1557.     Like   its 


2i8     GENEVAN,  BIS  HOP  S\  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

successor,  this  version  was  published  at  Geneva,  but  it 
bore  no  name.  Practically,  however,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  it  may  be  attributed  to  William  Whittingham,  who 
was  Dean  of  Durham  under  Elizabeth,  a  Fellow  of  All 
Souls,  and  connected  with  Calvin  by  marriage.  He  was 
a  man  of  large  learning,  and  one  of  the  ablest  of 
that  company  of  scholars  whose  joint  labours,  between 
January  1558  and  the  spring  of  1560,  produced  the 
complete  Genevan  Bible. 

Of  this  New  Testament  our  space  precludes  more 
than  a  mere  passing  notice,  but  there  are  two  points 
with  regard  to  it  which  deserve  attention.  It  is,  in  the 
first  place,  the  earliest  translation  to  adopt  that  division 
of  the  text  into  verses,*  which  was  made,  during  a  ride 
between  Paris  and  Lyons,  by  Robert  Stephens  in  his 
Greek  Testament  of  155 1,  and  which  reappears  in  the 
Genevan  Bible  of  1 560.  In  the  second  place,  it  forms 
the  groundwork  of  the  revision,  by  some  other  and  un- 
known hand,  which  we  find  printed  as  the  New  Testa- 
ment portion  of  the  complete  Bible  which  shortly 
followed  it. 

Knox,   Coverdale,   and   several    others   among   the 

revisers,  who  had  been  at  work  under  the  supervision 

of  Calvin  and  Beza,  left  Geneva  before  their  task  was 

*  The  division  of  the  Bible  into  chapters,  or  sections,  was 
adopted  to  facilitate  its  use  for  reading  aloud  in  synagogues  or  in 
churches,  and  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  manuscript  Bible.  The 
division  into  verses  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  printed  Bible,  and 
was  made  for  purposes  of  reference  and  citation.  Our  Bible  was 
divided  into  chapters  in  the  thirteenth  century  :  either  by  Langton, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  by  Cardinal  Hugo  de  Sancto  Caro, 
a  Dominican  monk.  As  above  stated,  the  division  into  verses  is  due 
to  R.  Stephens,  who  in  1556-7  extended  it  to  his  Latin  Bible. 


THE  GENEVAN  TRANSLATION  219 

complete ;  but  we  learn  from  Anthony  A.  Wood  that 
"  Whittingham,  with  one  or  two  more,  being  resolved  to 
go  through  with  the  work,  did  tarry  a  year  and  a  half 
after  Queen  Elizabeth  came  to  the  Crown."  The 
"one  or  two  more"  appear  to  have  been  Anthony 
Gilby,  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  and  Thomas 
Sampson,  Dean  of  Chichester,  and  subsequently  Dean 
of  Christ  Church  in  the  early  year  of  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.* 

The  book  is  entitled  "  The  Bible  and  Holy  Scriptures 
conteyned  in  the  Olde  and  Newe  Testament  translated 
according  to  the  Ebrue  and  Greke,  and  conferred  with 
the  best  translations  in  diver's  languages.  With  moste 
profitable  annotations  upon  all  the  hard  places,  and 
other  things  of  great  importance^ 

The  dedication,  expressed  in  terms  of  admiration 
and  respect,  but  exceptionally  free  from  offensive  adula- 
tion, is  to  that  illustrious  sovereign,  daughter  of  the 
Protestant  Anne  Boleyn,  upon  whom  the  hopes  of  the 
Reformation  were  then  centred.  On  the  very  day  of 
her  coronation,  Elizabeth  had  been  presented,  as  the 
royal  procession  was  making  its  way  along  Cheapside, 
with  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Verbum 
veritatis,  from  the  hands  of  a  venerable  old  man 
representing  Time,  with  Truth  standing  beside  him  as 
his  child,  had  reverently  kissed  it  and  had  pledged  her- 
self "  diligently  to  read  therein."  After  the  dedication, 
which  characteristically  enough  comprises  an  exhorta- 

*  The  cost  of  the  undertaking  was  borne  by  the  Genevan  con- 
gregation. Prominent  among  them  was  John  Bodley,  father  of  the 
founder  of  the  Bodleian  Library. 


220     GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

tion  to  put  all  Papists  to  the  sword,  there  follows  an 
epistle  addressed  "  To  our  Beloved  in  the  Lord,  the 
Brethren*  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,"  this  being 
the  name  by  which  the  Calvinists  were  commonly  known 
before  the  term  Puritan  had  become  attached  to  them. 

Based,  as  regards  the  Old  Testament,  mainly  on  the 
Great  Bible,  and,  as  regards  the  New  Testament,  on 
Whittingham's  version  of  1557,  which  was  itself  a  re- 
vision of  Tyndale,  the  Genevan  Bible  was  the  result  of 
a  careful  collation  with  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  originals, 
and  of  a  free  use  of  the  best  recent  Latin  versions, 
especially  Beza's,  as  well  as  of  the  standard  French  and 
German  translations.  It  is  essentially  a  revision,  and 
not  a  new  translation ;  though  perhaps  we  ought 
partially  to  except  from  this  statement  the  prophetical 
and  poetical  books,  in  which  the  changes  introduced  are 
very  numerous. 

In  many  ways  this  edition  formed  a  new  departure, 
and  offered  new  attractions.  Especially  was  this  the 
case  with  regard  to  bulk.  The  Great  Bible  was  a  huge 
unwieldy  folio,  suited  only  for  liturgical  use.  Its  rival 
was  for  the  most  part  issued  as  a  quarto  of  comfortable 
size,  and  at  a  moderate  price.  In  place  of  the  heavy 
black  letter  to  which  readers  had  been  accustomed, 
there  appeared  the  clear  Roman  type  with  which  our 
modern  press  has  made  us  familiar.  The  division  of 
the  chapters  into  verses,  however  we  may  condemn  it 
as  a  literary  device,  has  undeniable  advantages,  both  for 

*  A  Society  of  Christian  Brethren  was  founded  in  London  in 
1525  for  the  distribution  of  Bibles,  Testaments,  and  Protestant 
literature,  and  had  local  branches  in  many  of  the  seaport  towns. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  GENEVAN  BIBLE    221 

the  preacher  and  for  private  reference  and  study,  to  say- 
nothing  of  its  effect  in  facilitating  the  prominence  that 
soon  began  to  attach  to  particular  favourite  texts.  The 
employment,  too,  of  italics,  to  mark  words  not  repre- 
sented in  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek,  had  an 
exceptional  value  for  readers  who  believed  every 
syllable  of  the  Bible  to  have  been  directly  inspired. 
The  running  commentary  of  illustrative  and  explana- 
tory notes  was  a  further  boon  of  no  little  importance. 
For  the  harsh  measures  of  the  Queen  against 
"  Prophesying "  had  emptied  half  the  city  pulpits,  and 
had  made  qualified  ministers  of  the  Word  most  incon- 
veniently scarce.  Prophesying  was  one  of  the  most 
highly  valued  of  Puritan  institutions,  and  was  the  term 
applied  to  the  periodical  clerical  meetings,  or  local 
gatherings,  of  the  Protestant  clergy  for  mutual  instruc- 
tion and  training  as  preachers,  gatherings  in  which 
Elizabeth  fancied  that  she  could  detect  the  cloven  hoof 
of  faction  and  disloyalty.  But  not  merely  was  the 
book  thus  made  self-interpreting.  --  Its  usefulness  was 
yet  further  enhanced  by  maps,  and  woodcuts,  and 
elaborate  tables,  by  an  appendix  of  metrical  psalms, 
and  finally,  by  an  interpolation,  in  all  editions  after 
1579)  of  ^  catechism  so  pronounced  in  its  Calvinism 
as  to  suggest  a  design  among  the  "  Brethren "  of 
superseding,  through  its  instrumentality,  the  authorita- 
tive catechism  of  the  Church. 

Neither  cumbersome  nor  costly  ;  terse,  and  vigorous 
in  style ;  literal,  and  yet  boldly  idiomatic,  the  Genevan 
version  was  at  once  a  conspicuous  advance  on  all  the 
Biblical  labours  that  had   preceded  it,  and  an  edition 


222      GENEVAN,  BIS  HOP  S\  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

which  could  fairly  claim  to  be  well  abreast  of  the 
soundest  contemporary  scholarship. 

Apart,  however,  from  its  intrinsic  merits,  and  from 
its  incidental  attractions,  _the  introduction  of  the  Bible 
into  England,  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  authors, 
was  singularly  opportune.  Secular  literature  was  at 
this  time  all  but  unknown.  Shakespeare  was  not 
yet  born.  Spencer  was  but  six  years  old,  and  Bacon 
in  his  cradle.  With  the  exception  of  the  Bible,  the 
Prayer  Book,  Foxe's  '^ Book  of  Martyrs','  and  Calvin's 
^^  Institutes^'  it  is  difficult  to  recall  a  book  which  had 
any  considerable  circulation.  Meanwhile  the  habit  of 
Bible-reading  had  been  steadily  gaining  a  firm  hold 
upon  that  large  and  increasing  section  of  the  com- 
munity to  which  the  Genevan  Bible  would  most  forcibly 
appeal. 

Launched  into  publicity  upon  a  flood-tide  of  Pro- 
testant elation,  it  at  once  arrested  attention  and 
secured  respect  by  the  prestige  of  its  parent  city, 
by  the  renown  of  its  sponsors,  Calvin,  Beza,  and  Knox, 
the  two  former  of  whom  were  the  best  Biblical  scholars 
of  the  day,  and  by  the  known  character  and  attainments 
of  those  responsible  for  it  as  a  revision. "  In  many  a 
house,  too,  it  must  vividly  have  recalled  to  recent  exiles 
the  hospitalities  and  kindnesses  which,  in  the  dark  days 
of  their  adversity,  had  been  extended  to  them  on  a 
foreign  soil. 

Such,  then,  was  the  famous  Genevan  Bible,  and  there 
attaches  to  it  a  twofold  interest.  Not  only  does  it 
constitute  an  important  link  in  the  chain  of  English 
versions,  but  it  strikes   a   new  historical  note.      Con- 


ITS  CALVIN ISTIC  COLOURING  223 

sidered  as  a  fresh  rendering  of  the  Scriptures  it  stands 
creditably  free  from  ecclesiastical  bias.  Considered  as 
a  literary  whole  it  has  about  it  the  character  of  a 
Calvinist  manifesto.  Of  the  notes,  those  famous 
"spectacles  for  weak  eyes,"  probably  not  more  than  a 
twentieth  part  could  fairly  be  called  sectarian,  but  their 
general  tone  and  savour  are  not  to  be  mistaken.  -  The 
contrast  of  "  elect "  and  "  reprobate,"  which  is  met  with 
throughout ;  the  marked  omission  of  all  the  saints'  days 
from  the  calendar  ;  the  list  of  Old  Testament  names, 
selected  in  order  to  mark,  in  the  holders  of  them,  a 
special  dedication  to  God ;  the  table  that  directs  the 
reader  to  those  passages  in  the  Bible  which  seemed  to 
bear  with  most  weight  on  the  cardinal  points  in  the 
Calvinistic  creed  ;  the  characteristic  distaste  for  all  forms 
of  recreation  and  amusement,  which  comes  out  so 
curiously  in  the  heading  above  St  Mark's  account  of  the 
murder  of  the  Baptist,  "'the  inconvenience  of  dauncing"  ; 
these  are  a  few  among  the  many  indications  which 
abound  to  show  that  this  publication  is  a  book  with 
a  special  purpose,  a  book  undertaken  at  the  instance 
of  a  Calvinist  congregation,  by  Calvinist  scholars,  for 
Calvinist  readers.  ^ 

We  are  thus  brought  within  sight  of  a  new  phase 
in  the  English  Reformation,  and  are  enabled  to  recog- 
nise the  gradual  approach  of  that  internecine  struggle 
between  Genevan  and  Anglican,  Presbyterian  and 
Episcopalian,  Congregationalist  and  Churchman,  which, 
if  it  was  for  a  while  kept  in  the  background  by  the 
pressure  of  an  overmastering  anxiety  as  to  England's 
very   existence    as    an    independent    nation,   was    yet 


224      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

never  for  one  moment  abandoned  through  the  whole 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  was  destined  to  usher  in, 
under  her  successors,  when  authority  had  ripened  into 
oppression  and  contumacy  into  rebellion,  the  yet  more 
momentous  conflict  between  political  liberty  and  divine 
right. 

In  Germany  it  had  not  been  possible  to  keep 
political  and  religious  issues  apart.  But  in  England 
the  case  was  different.  While  all  parties  were  practi- 
cally agreed  that  some  reformation  of  the  abuses  of  the 
Church  was  indispensable,  the  large  majority  were  for 
a  purified  Catholicism  without  the  Pope,  and  a  rela- 
tively small  minority  for  a  reconstruction  of  the  old 
creed,  and  even  for  a  new  form  of  Church  government. 

The  wide  popularity  which  was  so  rapidly  won 
by  the  Genevan  Bible  had  two  important  results.  It 
undermined  the  titular  authority  of  the  Great  Bible, 
which  beyond  all  doubt  was  inferior  to  it  as  a  transla- 
tion ;  and  it  forced  Archbishop  Parker  into  the  endeavour 
to  supersede  it  by  a  Bible  whose  excellence  might 
deserve  to  be  stamped  with  the  hall-mark  of  Church 
and  State.  To  acquiesce  in  the  free  circulation  of  the 
Genevan  Bible,  side  by  side  not  only  with  the  Great 
Bible,  but  with  the  Bibles  of  Coverdale  and  Matthew, 
would  have  been  to  condone  a  medley  of  authorities 
almost  equivalent  to  spiritual  chaos. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  our  great  Tudor 
Queen,  whose  sagacity  was  always  alert  to  discern 
and  recognise 

"  The  limits  of  resistance,  and  the  bounds 
Determining  concession," 


ELIZABETH  AND  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE        225 

differed  greatly  from  Henry  VIII.  in  her  attitude, 
during  the  first  period  of  her  reign,  towards  the  current 
English  versions  of  the  Scriptures.  She  had  begun 
very  cautiously.  Crowned  according  to  the  Romish 
ritual,  she  daily  attended  mass,  she  is  said  to  have 
formally  announced  her  accession  to  the  Pope  (though 
this  is  denied  by  good  authorities),  and  she  listened  with 
affected  coyness  to  a  proposal  for  her  hand  by  Philip 
of  Spain.  A  daughter  rather  of  the  Renaissance  than 
of  the  Reformation,  firmly  opposed  to  whatever  she 
considered  dangerous  to  the  cause  of  order,  or  to  the 
supremacy  of  the  Crown,  but  with  no  strong  religious 
convictions  of  her  own,  Elizabeth  would  have  no  version 
^^  either  ahled  or  disabled!'  She  would  favour  neither 
Papist  nor  Gospeller.  She  would  be  the  leader  of  no 
one  section  of  her  subjects,  but,  first  and  last,  the 
Queen  of  England. 

Left  to  itself  it  was  inevitable  that  the  Genevan 
should,  on  its  merits,  dethrone  the  Great  Bible ;  yet 
it  was  plainly  impossible  for  Convocation  to  erect 
the  Puritan  book  into  a  standard  version,  or  to  obtain 
the  Queen's  authorisation  of  an  annotated  Bible  so 
undisguisedly  associated  with  the  names  of  Calvin, 
whom  she  detested,  and  Knox,  whose  "^  First  Blast 
against  the  Monstrous  Regiment  of  Women  "  rankled  in 
her  mind,  and  whom  she  detested  still  more.  Elizabeth 
could  not  openly  favour  the  Protestants  without  giving 
offence  to  Rome,  and  Spain,  and  France.  The  essence 
of  her  policy  was  to  do  her  utmost  to  avoid  war,  and 
in  the  meantime  to  build  up  a  strong  and  united 
England   in  the   shadow  of  peace ;  to  bring  about   a 

P 


226      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS\  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

religious  compromise  under  which  all  might  fairly  be 
made  to  live,  to  preserve  order  through  her  bishops 
and  through  her  Court  of  High  Commission,  and  to  be 
tolerant  of  anything  that  fell  short  of  political  faction. 

With  regard  to  Parker,  his  own  love  of  uniformity, 
if  nothing  else,  would  sooner  or  later  have  caused  him 
to  address  himself  to  a  task  which,  if  there  was  to  be 
any  finality  in  the  interpretation  of  and  the  appeal 
to  Scripture,  must  inevitably  be  undertaken  without 
delay.  Accordingly,  about  the  year  1 563-4,  the  Arch- 
bishop set  himself  to  organise  a  select  revision 
committee,  and  the  version  for  which  they  became 
responsible  is  historically  known  as  the  Bishops'  Bible. 

The  instructions  laid  down  for  their  guidance  were 
substantially  as  follows.  They  were  to  keep  to  the 
Great  Bible  except  where  "  it  varieth  manifestly "  from 
the  originals.  They  were  to  set  great  store  by  the 
Latin  versions  of  Munster  and  Pagninus,  of  which  the 
former  is  often  wanting  in  accuracy.  They  were  to 
avoid  "bitter  notes,"  and  "determination  in  places 
of  controversy."  Passages  containing  matter  that 
did  not  tend  to  edification,  as,  for  example,  "  Gene- 
alogies," were  to  be  marked  off,  so  that  a  reader 
might  leave  them  out.  Words  that  offended  good 
taste  were  to  be  "expressed  with  more  convenient 
terms  and  phrases." 

The  time  occupied  by  the  work  was  about  four 
years.  In  October  1568  it  was  published,  as  a  stately 
and  imposing  folio,  with  the  plain  title,  "  The  Holie 
Bible,  containing  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New'' 
There  was  no  dedication,  but  on  the  title-page  was  a 


THE  BISHOPS'  BIBLE  227 

portrait  of  the  Queen,  in  front  of  the  Book  of  Joshua  an 
engraving  of  Lord  Leicester  in  his  armour,  and  in  front 
of  the  Psalms  one  of  Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh.  The  division 
into  verses  was  adopted  from  the  Genevan  Bible.  A 
considerable  space  was  given  to  tables,  calendars, 
almanacs,  woodcuts,  and  maps.  Parker  contributed 
a  preface,  and  Cranmer's  preface  to  the  Great  Bible 
was  reprinted.  On  the  5th  October  1568,  the  Arch- 
bishop, being  in  weak  health,  wrote  to  Cecil  asking  him 
to  present  a  copy  to  the  Queen.  Enclosed  with  it  was 
a  private  letter  of  dedication  to  her,  in  which  reference 
is  made  to  translations  ^^  which  have  not  been  laboured 
in  your  realm,  having  inspersed  diverse  prejudicial 
notes  which  might  have  been  well  spared"  an  allusion, 
not  too  obscurely  veiled,  to  the  Genevan  Bible.  But 
whatever  she  may  have  said  in  private,  Elizabeth  took 
no  public  notice  of  the  Bishops'  Bible,  nor  did  she  ever 
offer  to  give  it  her  formal  sanction  and  authority. 

The  distinguishing  method  of  the  Genevan  Com- 
mittee had  been  a  system  of  careful  and  methodical 
collaboration,  as  contrasted  with  the  isolated  labours 
of  the  pioneers  of  translation.  It  was  the  Archbishop's 
intention  to  proceed  upon  similar  lines.  He  does  not, 
however,  appear  to  have  succeeded  in  providing  any 
adequate  machinery  for  attuning  and  harmonising  the 
idiosyncrasies  of  independent  contributors  working  in 
separate  fields.  The  consequence  is  that  the  Bishops' 
Bible  is  a  work  of  very  uneven  merit.  Parker,  who  was 
an  excellent  scholar  himself,  no  doubt  exercised  some 
general  supervision  as  editor.  But  much  more  than 
mer€  central  control  was  needed  if  a  cento  of  unrelated 


228      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

parts  was  ever  to  be  successfully  moulded  into  an 
organic  literary  whole.  It  would  probably  be  unjust 
to  take  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  to  whom  -the  revision 
of  the  Psalter  was  in  the  first  instance  allotted,  as  a  fair 
sample  of  colleagues  who  held  much  stricter  views  of 
their  responsibilities ;  but  the  principle  on  which  he,  at 
any  rate,  avowed  himself  to  be  acting  is  plainly  incom- 
patible with  honest  work.  "  When  part  of  a  Psalm  is 
quoted  in  the  New  Testament,"  he  says,  "  I  translate 
the  Hebrew  according  to  the  translation  thereof  in  the 
New  Testament,  for  the  avoiding  of  the  offence  that  may 
rise  upon  divers  translations." 

The  revisers  of  the  Old  Testament  seem  to  have 
adhered  too  closely  to  the  renderings  of  the  Great 
Bible  to  achieve  for  their  version  any  very  conspicuous 
independent  value.  Their  rendering  of  the  Apocrypha 
is  practically  the  same  as  that  of  the  Great  Bible, 
which  was  based  on  the  Latin  text.  But  the  New 
Testament,  as  re-edited  in  1572  after  the  pungent  and 
incisive  criticisms  of  Lawrence,  headmaster  of  Shrews- 
bury, attains  a  much  higher  level,  and  is  as  remarkable 
for  the  advance  in  scholarship  which  it  exhibits,  more 
especially  in  the  treatment  of  the  Greek  particles  and 
prepositions,  as  for  its  courageous  independence.  It  is 
the  originator  of  many  felicitous  phrases  which  have 
been  perpetuated  by  their  adoption  into  our  Authorised 
Version,  such  as  "  the  middle  wall  of  partition,"  "  less 
than  the  least  of  all  saints."  It  surprises  the  reader 
with  an  occasional  quaint  literalism,  as  in  St  Mark  vii. 
27 :  "  Cast  it  unto  the  little  dogges " ;  and  again,  in 
I  Corinthians  xii.  7 :  "A  pricke  of  the  fleshe,"  or  with 


INFERIORITY  OF  BISHOPS'  BIBLE  229 

an  archaism  such  as,  "  He  that  killeth  a  sheep  for  me 
knatcheth  a  dog,"  Isaiah  Ixvi.  3.  (Margin,  "  cutteth  off 
a  dogge's  necke.") 

With  regard  to  the  commentary  which  accompanies 
this  Bible  not  much  need  be  said.  Many  of  the  notes 
are  taken,  and  taken  without  acknowledgment,  from  the 
Genevan  Bible ;  but  the  annotators  have  been  so  con- 
scientiously mindful  of  their  instructions  to  avoid 
bitterness  and  controversy,  that  they  have  not  un- 
frequently  fallen  into  a  colourless  feebleness  which 
scarcely   rises   above  the   level  of  ^^  toierabiles  inepticB." 

On  the  whole  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Bishops' 
Bible,  though  strongly  supported  by  Convocation,  and 
though  it  superseded  the  Great  Bible  in  liturgical  use, 
has  been  justly  ranked  among  the  least  successful  of 
our  English  versions.  Its  imposing  appearance  did 
not  atone  for  its  defects.  It  was  costly.  It  was 
cumbersome.  It  did  not  satisfy  scholars.  It  was  ill- 
suited  to  the  general  public.  The  editing,  it  must  be 
added,  left  much  to  be  desired.  The  illustrations  with 
which  the  printer  has  been  allowed  to  ornament  some 
of  the  initial  letters  belong  rather  to  the  Renaissance 
than  to  the  Reformation,  and  suggest  a  keener  relish 
for  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid  than  for  St  Paul.  It  is 
difficult,  for  example,  to  reconcile  what  might  fairly 
be  expected  from  due  episcopal  supervision  with  that 
startling  woodcut  of  "  Leda  and  the  Swan "  which 
caused  the  second  edition  of  this  version  to  be  nick- 
named the  "  Leda  "  Bible,  and  which  has  so  unaccount- 
ably been  permitted  to  decorate  the  initial  letter  of  the 
Epistle  to   the    Hebrews.     After  a  life  of  some   forty 


230      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAl  BIBLES 

years,  and  after  passing  through  nineteen  editions,  the 
Bishops'  Bible  ceased  to  be  printed.  There  is  no  copy 
bearing  a  later  date  than  1606. 

The  direct  descendant  of  the  Bishops'  Bible  in  the 
line  of  our  English  versions  is  the  King's  Bible,  but 
there  is  also  an  English  translation,  largely  drawn 
upon  by  the  revisers  of  that  great  work,  and  belonging 
(at  any  rate,  in  part)  to  the  Tudor  period,  which  we 
must  now  go  on  to  describe.  We  refer  to  what  is 
known  as  the  Douai  Bible,  the  work  of  certain  Oxford 
scholars  in  exile  from  England,  and  having  their 
headquarters  at  one  time  in  Flanders  and  at  another 
time  in  France. 

The  New  Testament  of  this  version  has  a  niche  of 
its  own  in  our  national  history.  It  was  upon  a  copy 
of  it  that  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  on  the  evening  before 
her  execution,  swore  a  last  solemn  oath  of  innocence. 
Rudely  interrupted  by  the  Earl  of  Kent,  as  swearing 
a  valueless  oath  on  a  false  book,  Mary  retorted  with 
quiet  dignity,  "  Does  your  lordship  think  that  my  oath 
would  be  better  if  I  swore  on  your  translation,  in 
which  I  do  not  believe  ?  " 

The  Douai  Bible  may  be  described  as  a  Roman 
Catholic  pendant  to  the  Genevan  Bible,  Both  were 
produced  on  foreign  soil.  Both  were  from  the  hands 
of  men  living  in  exile  on  account  of  their  creed.  In 
both  might  be  detected  an  ulterior  aim  beyond  the 
mere  faithful  rendering  of  the  text.  With  the  one  is 
indelibly  associated  the  persistent  endeavour  of  the 
extreme  Protestants  to  remodel  the  English  Church 
on  the  lines  of  Continental  Calvinism  ;  while  with  the 


WILLI  AM  ALLEN  AND  THE  DOUAI  BIBLE     231 

other  is  historically  linked  the  combined  effort  of  Spain 
and  Rome  to  crush  Elizabeth  into  subjection  to  the 
Pope.  Let  us  glance  briefly  at  the  circumstances 
under  which  this  Roman  Catholic  version  was  made. 

On  the  very  date  of  the  publication  of  the  Bishops' 
Bible,  the  year  1568,  there  was  founded  at  Douai — then 
a  city  of  Flanders,  and  one  of  the  chief  Continental 
centres  for  Roman  Catholic  refugees  from  Great  Britain, 
— an  English  College.  Its  founder,  William  Allen, 
belonged  to  an  old  Lancashire  family,  and  had  been 
a  Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  and  a  Canon  of 
York  under  Queen  Mary.  His  fervent  and  untiring 
zeal  as  an  agitator  against  the  Elizabethan  settlement 
of  religion  was  rewarded  in  1587  with  a  Cardinal's 
hat,  and  he  was  even  then  marked  out  as  the  future 
Cardinal  of  England,  and  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Allen's  College  was  affiliated  to  the  University  of 
Douai,  an  institution  which  had  been  established  a 
few  years  earlier  by  Philip  the  Second  of  Spain,  with- 
in whose  vast  dominions  the  city  itself  lay.  Open  to 
any  English  Roman  Catholic  students  who  might  be 
seeking  a  college  education,  it  was  primarily  designed 
for  the  training  of  a  disciplined  body  of  priests,  as  the 
possible  successors  in  England  of  the  moribund  Marian 
clergy,  and  as  ready  instruments,  when  opportunity 
should  offer,  of  the  restoration  of  the  wandering  sheep 
to  the  Roman  fold. 

Of  the  Jesuit  missions  and  seminary  priests  of 
whom  we  read  so  much  during  the  last  years  of 
Elizabeth's  reign,*  Douai  was  a  fertile  source.  The 
'^  Green's  History^  ii.,  pp.  406-7. 


232      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

Douai  Bible,  promoted  by  Allen  himself,  but  actually- 
translated  under  the  superintendence  of  Gregory 
Martin,  once  a  fellow  of  St  John's  College,  Oxford, 
was  published  in  two  parts,  and  at  an  interval  of 
nearly  thirty  years.  For  this  delay  the  editors  were 
in  no  respect  to  blame,  for  both  Testaments  had  been 
completed  before  1582.  It  was  occasioned,  as  the  trans- 
lators expressly  state,  only  by  the  want  of  adequate 
funds.  The  first  volume  to  appear  was  the  New 
Testament,  printed  at  Rheims  in  1582,*  the  year  as 
it  may  be  remembered  which  followed  the  execution 
in  London,  on  a  charge  of  treason,  of  Campion,  one 
of  the  Jesuit  emissaries  either  from  Douai  or  from 
Rome.  The  migration  of  Allen's  College  to  Rheims 
between  the  years  of  1578  and  1593  was  the  result  of 
political  disturbances.  It  was  at  Douai  that  the  Old 
Testament  was  printed  in  1609-10,  and  it  is  from 
Douai  that  the  complete  Bible  has  taken  its  name. 

When  the  Rheims  Testament  made  its  appearance 
in  England,  in  1582,  the  nation  was  passing  through  a 
period  of  intense  excitement.  Times  had  indeed 
changed  since  Elizabeth  could  with  equanimity  forbid 
that  any  version  of  the  Scriptures  should  be  "■either 
abled  or  disabled^  Twelve  years  had  gone  by  since 
the   Vatican   had  declared  war  upon  her   by  a  bull  of 

*  Great  prominence  was  given  to  this  edition  owing  to  W. 
Fulke's  refutations  of  its  Roman  Catholic  commentary,  published 
in  1589.  Fulke  printed  the  Rheims  Testament  and  the  1572 
edition  of  the  Bishops'  Bible  in  parallel  columns,  adding  to  each 
chapter  a  vigorous  polemic  on  the  Rheims  notes.  His  very 
able  and  learned  Defence  of  English  Bible  Translations  is  among 
the  Parker  Society's  publications.     It  appeared  in  1583. 


Cha.  III. 


TO   THl    irniSIAMS. 

Chap.     III. 


5'7 


rtrvv,tntJ!p,ilbtv»<t*,m$fthtGen,it,,  utanitkt^ftJtUtfihiCariti,  hthS, 
fnfm  :  it  Wbtrm  tht  CmtUi  thtrfcrthtut  «»/»  M  rtiina,'Tubtr  thai  u 
Jhrmke.  Sahifmith,  ,t  *ni  alf, fruah to  Cti  (Viiht n almithtu^  tt <tm- 
frmetbariMWardmaM,  ibcu^h  theniwtri  btmfrwudijptrfceiUumi. 

I  ^e^bTRS'^^  ^^  '^"  caufc,  I  Paul  the  prifoner  of 
i      >yW^^^X^^  lEsvsChrift,  foryouGcntHcs:  t  if 

yctyouhauc  heard  the  difpenfatjon  of 
the  grace  of  God  ,  which  isgiucn  me 
toward  you,  t  bccaufe  according  to 
rcuclation  the  facramcnt  was  made 
kno wen  to  me,as  1  hauc  vvritte  before 
inbreifc:  7  according  as  you   reading 

may  vndcrftand  my  vvifcdom  in  the  rayftcric  of  Chrift, 
J     t  which  vnto  other  generations  was  not  knovven  tojhc 

fonnes  of  men,  as  now  it  is  rcuealed  ro  his  holy  Apoftles  & 

6  Prophets  in  the  Spirit,  t  The  Gentils  robe  coheires&  con- 
corporat  and  compaiiicipant  of  his  promis  in  Chrift  I  e  «  v  s 

7  by  thc'Gofpel :    t  whereof  I  am  made  a  minifter  according 
to  the  gift  of  the  grace  of  God.vph ich  is  giucn  me  according 

8  to  the  operation  of  his  power,  t  Tomc*theleaftof  althc 
faindlesisgiuenthis  gracc,amongthc  Genrils  to  cuangclizc 

9  the  vnfearcheablc  riches  of  Chrift,  t  and  to  illuminate  al 

men  what  is  the  difpenfatio  of  the  facramcnt  hidden  ^  from  ^^'^' '/" 

10  worldcs  in  God.'vvho  created  al  things:  t  that  the  mani- 
fold vvifcdom  of  God,  may  be  notified  to  the  Princes  and 

II  Poteftats  in  the  cclcftials  by  the  Church,  t  according  to  the  ^  ^^  ^^.^^^ 
'prefiniti6ofNrorldes,vvhichhema4cinChriftlESVSOur  Tpon  the  i« 

11  Lord,  t  In  whom  vvchaue  affiance  and  acceiTe  in  confi-  ^^;;,tV^"' 

13  dencc,  by  the  faith  of  him.  t  ''For  the  which  caufe  I  defire  :=chriad*'fi- 
thatyou  faint  not  in  my  tribulations  for  you,  which  is  your  [VsRift  J.',Sj 

plorie  *^* '^  '"'*  '■'' 

14  t    For  this  caufc  I  bovvc  my  knees  to  the  Father  of  our  ^^"^A';;!'^^^^^ 

ij    Lord  I  B  s  V  s  Chf  ift,  t  of  vvh om  al  patcrnitic  in  the  heauens  ;'«J/«  '"^;?; 

16  and  in  earth  is  named,  t  that  he  due  you  according  to  the  „„  p,„^„  .^ 
riches  of  his  gloricpo  wcr  10  be  fortified  by  his  Spirit  m  the  f^^^r^^ 

17  inner  man.    t   Chrift  «  to  dwcl  by  faith  in  yoor  hartes,  ,ffi    , 

18  rooted nnd founded* in charitic.  t  thatyonmay  bcableto  c^Notj«th^ 
comprehend  withal  the  fainftcs,  vvh«iSthebredth,and  v.   b«cMH. 

19  lenglh.and hcight.and deptb.t  tokDOVV alfo the chant»c of  "'^-Jj,-;:;,*- 


i 

BHBIMS  (DOUAI)  NEW  TESTAMENT  OF  1582. 


[Face  p.  233. 


ITS  RECEPTION  IN  ENGLAND  233 

excommunication,  and  had  pronounced  her  to  be  no 
longer  Queen.  Men's  minds  were  full  to  overflowing 
with  the  awful  memories  of  St  Bartholomew,  with  the 
butcheries  of  Alva,  with  the  iniquities  of  the  Inquisition, 
with  the  revolt  of  the  Netherlands.  Not  in  England 
alone,  but  also  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  the  Jesuit 
agents  of  Rome  were  hard  at  work  in  undermining 
the  Queen's  throne.  Elizabeth  herself  went  in  daily 
terror  of  her  life.  Even  the  extreme  Puritans  were 
held  temporarily  in  check  by  the  consciousness  that 
the  fortunes  of  their  cause  were  dependent  on  her 
escape  from  the  malignity  of  their  common  foe.  From 
every  side  the  feeling  was  borne  in  upon  the  nation 
at  large  that  England  was  nearing  the  crisis  of  her 
fate,  and  under  the  pressure  of  political  peril  Protest- 
antism became  identified  with  patriotism. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  realise  the  reception  with  which 
at  such  a  time  the  Rheims  Testament,  with  its  aggres- 
sively Roman  notes,  was  likely  to  meet.  The  book  was 
but  one  more  addition  to  the  signs,  much  too  numerous 
already,  of  the  sleepless  activity  of  the  common  enemy. 
To  harbour  it  was  declared  high  treason,  while  through 
the  spies  and  searchers  of  the  Government  not  a  few 
who  were  suspected  of  promoting  its  circulation  were 
brought  to  the  torture  of  the  rack. 

Such  being  the  circumstances  under  which  the  first 
instalment  of  the  Douai  Bible  made  its  appearance  in 
England,  it  now  remains  to  say  a  few  words  on  the 
version  itself 

In  an  elaborate  preface  of  more  than  twenty  pages 
the  Roman  reader  receives  a  kind  of  apologetic  explana- 


234      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

tion  of  what  might  naturally  strike  him  as  a  departure 
from  the  principles  of  his  Church.  For  the  promiscuous 
distribution  of  vernacular  versions  had  never  been  in 
favour  with  Rome,  nor  did  she  at  all  approve  of  any 
private  and  unauthorised  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures. 
It  may  be  pointed  out  that  even  as  late  as  the  year  1844 
the  then  Pope,  Gregory  XVI.,  true  to  the  policy  of  the 
Councils  of  Toulouse  and  of  Trent,  enjoined  his  "  vener- 
able brethren"  to  remove  from  the  hands  of  the 
faithful  all  "  Bibles  translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue." 
To  Protestants  must  the  odium  be  left  of  casting, 
as  these  Douai  editors  so  quaintly  phrase  it,  "the 
holy  to  dogges  and  pearles  to  hogges."  But,  seeing 
that  false  and  heretical  versions  were  being  scattered 
broadcast,  it  might  not  be  inexpedient  to  reassure  the 
faithful  by  presenting  them  with  a  semi-Anglicised 
Bible,  well  protected  with  a  bulwark  of  anti-Protestant 
annotations.  By  so  doing,  its  editors  might  hope  for 
ever  to  wipe  away  the  long  standing  reproach  of  Rome, 
that,  while  she  persistently  condemned  the  work  of 
scholars  outside  her  pale,  she  took  no  steps  herself  to 
render  their  critical  labours  superfluous. 

There  are  two  distinguishing  features  in  the  Douai 
Testament  which  bring  it  into  no  fanciful  relation  with 
the  Protestant  versions.  It  is  a  translation,  by  country- 
men of  our  own,  directly  from  the  Vulgate,  though 
reference  is  continuously  made  to  the  Greek  original,  as 
well  as  to  the  Geneva  and  Bishops'  Bibles  ;  and  it  is  in  the 
highest  degree  intolerant  and  controversial  in  its  notes. 
Geddes,  himself  a  Roman  Catholic,  speaks  of  them  as 
virulent,    and    manifestly    calculated     to     support    a 


ITS  UNINTELLIGIBLE  RENDERINGS  235 

system,  not  of  genuine  Catholicity  but  of  Transalpine 
Popery." 

Under  the  first  of  these  aspects  we  may  group  it  with 
the  Wyclifife  versions  and  with  the  Bible  of  Coverdale, 
whose  originals  were,  as  he  tells  us,  "the  Douche  and 
the  Latine,"  while,  under  its  second  aspect,  it  recalls 
the  methods  of  Tyndale  and  Rogers,  and  all  of  those 
polemically  annotated  Bibles  whose  doctrinal  sting  is 
mainly  in  their  supplemental  matter. 

To  the  Latin  of  the  Vulgate  the  Douai  translators 
were  even  slavishly  deferential.  Their  translation  has 
accordingly  one  fatal,  though  perhaps  not  unintentional, 
fault.  Considered  as  a  whole,  it  is  not  English,  Almost 
any  chapter  from  the  unmodernised  editions  will  supply 
instances  of  this  defect.  "  Purge  the  old  leaven  that  you 
may  be  a  new  paste,  as  you  are  azyines"  (i  Cor.  v.  7). 
**  He  exinanited  himself "  (Phil.  ii.  7).  "  Thou  hast  fatted  my 
head  with  oil,  and  my  chalice  inebriating  how  goodie  it  is  I' 
(Psalm  xxiii.  5).  ^^  Before  your  thorns  did  understand  the 
old  briar :  as  living  so  in  wrath  he  swalloweth  them " 
(Psalm  Ivii.  10).  "  The  Syrach  owls  shall  answer,  and 
mermaids  in  the  temples  of  pleasure'^  (Isaiah  xiii.  22). 

No  man  could  be  better  aware  than  a  scholarly 
Englishman  like  Gregory  Martin  that  such  renderings 
as  these  were  simply  barbarous.  Perhaps,  then,  his 
prevailing  motive  must  be  sought  elsewhere  than  in 
any  sympathy  with  the  wants  of  the  average  Bible- 
reader.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Douai  version  has  one 
great  merit  which  is  wanting  in  our  Authorised  Version, 
namely,  that  it  holds  fast  to  the  principle  of  uniformity 
in   its   renderings   whenever   this  principle  is  not  pre- 


236      GENEVAN,  BISHOPS',  AND  DOUAI  BIBLES 

judicial  to  the  sense.  Moreover,  for  serious  students, 
it  is  just  the  uncompromising  fidelity  of  the  translators 
to  their  Vulgate, — which,  in  its  New  Testament,  carries 
us  back  to  the  old  Latin  rendering  of  Greek  manu- 
scripts current  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century, — 
that  gives  to  this  Rheims  edition  so  considerable  a  value 
for  the  purposes  of  textual  criticism.  But  were  we 
under  no  other  obligation  to  the  editors  than  that  they 
helped  to  encourage  a  better  acquaintance  with  Jerome's 
Vulgate,*  our  debt  to  them  would  still  be  great. 

For  the  Vulgate,  though  a  composite  work,  will 
always  rank  among  the  most  remarkable  books  of  the 
world.f  It  is  astonishing  enough  that  a  monk  of  the 
West  should  have  been  able,  in  his  cell  at  Bethlehem, 
to  carry  through  an  undertaking  of  such  magnitude  as 
a  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  direct  from  the 
Hebrew,  and  a  revision,  by  the  aid  of  Greek  manuscripts, 
of  the  pre-existing  Latin  versions  of  the  New  Testament. 
But  the  Vulgate  has  more  in  it  than  its  nobility  as  a 
translation.  It  is  the  venerable  source  from  which  the 
Church  has  drawn  the  largest  part  of  its  ecclesiastical 
vocabulary.  Terms  now  so  familiar  as  to  arouse  no 
curiosity  as  to  their  origin,  "scripture,"  "spirit," 
"  penance,"  "  sacrament,"  "  communion,"  "  salvation," 
"  propitiation,"  "  elements,"  "  grace,"  "  glory,"  "  conver- 
sion," "discipline,"  "  sanctification,"  "congregation," 
"election,"  "eternity,"  "justification,"  all  come  from 
Jerome's  Bible.  It  is  an  imperishable  record  of  that 
commanding   genius   that    could    so    manipulate    and 

*  See  Appendix  A. 

+  See  Westcott,  The  Bible  in  the  Church,  pp.  130,  181,  191. 


GRANDEUR  OF  THE  LATIN  VULGATE  237 

mould  the  majestic  but  inflexible  language  of  Rome  as 
to  make  it  a  fit  and  pliant  instrument  for  the  expression 
of  modes  of  thought,  of  sentiments  and  images,  con- 
ceived originally  among  Eastern  associations  and 
breathed  upon  by  an  Eastern  spirit.  And,  yet  again, 
while  these  Latin  scriptures  of  the  fourth  century 
provide  us  with  a  link  which  we  could  ill  afford  to  lose, 
between  the  Latin  of  classical  times  and  the  Romance 
languages  which  are  its  descendants,  they  at  the  same 
time  serve  to  kindle  the  imagination  with  the  memory 
of  those  thousand  years  during  which  the  Vulgate 
reigned  supreme,  the  one  and  only  Bible  of  the  West, 
the  pride  and  pillar  of  that  Latin  Church  to  which, 
under  the  providence  of  God,  Europe  stands  for  ever 
indebted  for  the  preservation  of  her  spiritual  and 
intellectual  inheritance  from  the  blind  deluge  of 
Northern  barbarism. 


THE  KING'S  BIBLE 


"  Felix  opportunitate." 

"  At  the  time  when  that  odious  style  which  deforms  the  writ- 
ings of  Hall  and  of  Lord  Bacon  was  almost  universal,  appeared 
that  stupendous  work,  the  English  Bible,  a  book  which,  if  every- 
thing else  in  our  language  should  perish,  would  alone  suffice  to 
show  the  whole  extent  of  its  beauty  and  power." 

{Macaulafs  Essay  on  Dtyden.) 

"Never  was  a  great  enterprise,  like  the  production  of  our 
Authorised  Version,  carried  out  with  less  knowledge  handed  down 
to  posterity  of  the  labourers,  their  method  and  order  of  working." 

{Scrivener.) 

"  The  translation  of  King  James's  time  took  an  excellent  way. 
That  part  of  the  Bible  was  given  to  him  who  was  most  excellent 
in  such  a  tongue,  and  then  they  met  together,  and  one  read  the 
translation,  the  rest  holding  in  their  hands  some  Bible,  either  of 
the  learned  tongues,  or  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  etc. ;  if  they 
found  any  fault,  they  spoke  ;  if  not,  he  read  on." 

{Seldefis  Table  Talk.) 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  AUTHORISED   VERSION 

Elizabeth  died  in  March  1603,  and  with  the  accession 
of  James  I.  we  arrive  at  length  within  sight  of  that 
monumental  work  which  was  destined  not  merely  to 
eclipse  but  absolutely  to  efface  all  rivals,  and  to  enter 
upon  a  reign  which  has  endured  unbroken  for  now  nearly 
three  hundred  years,  and  in  the  undimmed  lustre  of 
which  we  yet  live. 

We  need  waste  no  words  in  praise  of  the  Authorised 
Version.  Being  but  a  human  work,  it  has  its  own 
defects,  but  none  the  less  it  is  universally  accepted  as  a 
literary  masterpiece,  as  the  noblest  and  most  beautiful 
book  in  the  world.  All  the  more  strange,  therefore,  is 
it  to  realise  that  a  revision  which  has  exercised  so  in- 
calculable an  influence  upon  religion,  upon  manners, 
upon  literature,  and  upon  character,  should  have  had 
its  origin  in  something  very  like  an  accident. 

The  Conference  of  1604  which  met  by  the  royal  com- 
mand on  the  14th,  i6th,  and  i8th  of  January  at  Hampton 
Court,  and  in  the  very  palace  which  had  once  belonged 
to  Wolsey,  had  not  been  called  with  any  view  to  the 
production  of  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible,     The  sole 

241  Q 


242  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

object  of  the  meeting  was  to  consider  what  is  known 
as  the  "Millenary  Petition."  This  was  a  petition  to 
the  throne  by  the  Puritan  section  of  the  national 
Church.  And,  in  presenting  to  the  King  their 
statement  of  grievances,  that  which  the  Puritan  clergy 
had  in  mind  was  not  the  Bible,  but  the  Prayer  Book. 
They  asked  that  some  alteration  might  be  made  in  the 
Church  se/vices,  so  as  to  purify  them  from  what  they 
deemed  to  be  superstitious  rites  and  ceremonies,  such 
as  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  the  use  of  the  ring 
in  marriage,  and  the  use  of  the  surplice  in  church.  They 
further  petitioned  for  the  provision  of  a  well-trained 
ministry  of  preachers,  and  for  a  greater  strictness  in 
ecclesiastical  discipline. 

During  the  latter  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign  this  left 
wing  of  the  English  clergy  had  endeavoured  to  assert 
its  claims  with  greater  and  greater  pertinacity.  But  the 
endeavour  had  not  been  successful.  The  Queen  had 
looked  to  her  bishops  to  keep  order,  and  if  they  showed 
themselves  reluctant  to  face  opposition,  they  soon  dis- 
covered that  they  had  a  Tudor  sovereign  to  reckon 
with.  Grindal,  for  example,  who  was  Parker's  successor, 
was  vindictively  forced  into  retirement  from  his  office, 
because  he  approved  of  the  Puritan  "  prophesy ings,"* 
while  his  Mistress  did  not.  No  pressure  of  events, 
not  even  the  ominous  gathering  of  the  storm- 
clouds  which  were  before  long  to  burst  over  England 
in  the  Spanish  Armada,  had  power  to  move  the 
Guardian  of  the  middle  way  from  her  settled 
policy    of    solidarity.       In     1583    she   made    Whitgift 

*  Page  221. 


KING  JAMES  AND  PURITANISM  243 

Primate,  Puritan  though  he  was  in  creed,  in  the 
belief  that  he  would  prove  himself  to  be  a  strong 
Churchman  in  government.  In  1593  the  non-conform- 
ing Puritans  followed  their  consciences  into  banishment, 
and  Whitgift  was  left  free  to  devote  his  energies  to  the 
advancement  of  learning  among  the  clergy,  and  to  the 
reform  of  the  ecclesiastical  Courts. 

When  Presbyterian  Scotland  sent  her  King  to 
occupy  the  vacant  throne  of  England,  the  baffled  hopes 
of  Calvinism  revived  once  more.  The  recent  course  of 
events  in  Europe  had  made  the  Puritans  profoundly 
anxious.  The  Reformation  had  received  a  very  serious 
check,  and  so  far  from  carrying  all  before  them  its 
upholders  were  with  difficulty  even  holding  their  own. 
Unless  England  herself  stood  firm  to  the  cause  of  Pro- 
testantism, there  was  a  very  imminent  danger  that  the 
Counter- Reformation  would  win  the  day,  and  that  the 
blood  of  the  Marian  martyrs  might  prove  after  all  to 
have  been  shed  in  vain.  The  accession  of  James  thus 
found  this  Calvinist  branch  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  a  gloomy  and  despondent  mood.  Yet  it  seemed  to 
them  not  impossible  that  with  the  new  King  the  tide 
might  be  about  to  turn.  If  the  Roman  Catholics  might 
fairly  hope  for  something  at  the  hands  of  the  son  of 
the  late  Queen  of  Scots,  their  religious  opponents  were 
not  likely  to  forget  the  Northern  Solomon's  speech 
to  the  General  Assembly  in  1 590.  "  As  for  our  neigh- 
bour kirk  in  England,"  James  had  protested,  "zV  is  an 
evil-said  Mass  in  English^  wanting  nothing  but  the  lift- 
ings." 

But  if  James  had    thus  seemed    to    befriend  the 


244  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

Kirk  in  1 590,  he  had  written  his  "  Basilikon  Ddron "  in 
support  of  the  divine  right  of  Kings  only  a  few  years 
later,  and  in  that  royal  composition  Presbyterianism 
had  been  very  roughly  handled, 

Elizabeth's  mind  was  secular  and  political,  so  that 
religious  questions  had  in  themselves  little  or  no 
interest  for  her,  but  James  was  a  born  theologian. 
From  his  childhood  he  had  been  devoted  to  the  study 
of  the  Bible.  He  had  written  a  paraphrase  of  the 
Book  of  Revelation.  He  had  translated  parts  of  the 
Psalter.  His  conversation  savoured  always  of  scriptural 
allusions  and  scriptural  phrases.  If  Calvinism  had  not 
had  Presbyterianism  standing  close  behind  it,  he  would 
have  welcomed  it  with  open  arms.  But  he  had  seen  far 
too  much  of  Presbyterianism  in  Scotland,  and  its  iron 
had  entered  too  deeply  into  his  soul,  for  him  to  be  at 
all  eager  to  renew  acquaintance  with  it.  A  thorough- 
going Stuart  in  character,  his  belief  in  kingcraft  and 
in  divine  right  was  as  fervent  as  his  belief  in  him- 
self. He  had  all  the  Tudor  wilfulness  without  any  of 
the  Tudor  sagacity.  He  would  not  have  forgotten  that 
it  was  not  very  long  ago  that  Andrew  Melvil  had  dared 
to  call  him  "  God's  silly  vassal "  to  his  face.  An  obse- 
quious prelate  was  far  more  to  his  liking  than  a  blunt 
kirk-minister,  and  absolutism  than  popular  government. 
Now  that  he  was  no  longer  weak  and  helpless,  he  hailed 
the  opportunity  of  trampling  on  his  old  tormentors  and 
of  inhaling  the  sweet-smelling  incense  of  episcopal 
adulation.  A  wiser  and  a  more  far-seeing  King 
would  have  made  the  most  of  the  opportunity  now 
oflfered  him  of  throwing  oil  on  the  ecclesiastical  waters 


THE  HAMPTON  COURT  CONFERENCE  245 

of  discord,  but  unfortunately  James  was  as  short-sighted 
as  he  was  foolish. 

Such  was  the  character  of  the  man  who  summoned 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference.  The  Petition  of  the 
malcontents,  as  has  been  remarked  above,  was  silent  on 
the  subject  of  the  English  Bible.  In  point  of  fact  the 
Calvinists  would  have  been  sufficiently  content  with  the 
Genevan  and  the  Anglicans  with  the  Bishops'  Bible. 
And  it  is  a  fact  not  without  some  significance  that  Dr 
Reynolds,  the  learned  President  of  Corpus  College, 
Oxford,  and  the  spokesman  of  the  moderate  Puritans,  did 
not  even  improvise  his  request  for  a  fresh  revision  until 
well  on  in  the  second  day  of  the  meeting,  by  which  time 
it  had  become  obvious,  if  indeed  any  real  doubt  could 
have  existed  on  the  subject  from  the  very  beginning, 
that  the  Puritan  representations  would  receive  very  scanty 
consideration.  A  useful  sidelight  is  thrown  upon  the 
matter  by  the  Preface  to  the  Authorised  Version.  The 
translators  there  write  as  follows  : — 

"The  very  historical  truth  is,  that  upon  the  importunate 
petitions  of  the  Puritans,  the  Conference  at  Hampton  Court 
having  been  appointed  for  hearing  their  complaints,  when  by 
force  of  reason  they  were  put  from  all  other  grounds,  they  had 
recourse  at  the  last  to  this  shift,  that  they  could  not  with  good 
conscience  subscribe  to  the  Communion  Book  {i.e.,  the  Prayer 
Book),  since  it  maintained  the  Bible  as  it  was  there  translated, 
which  was,  as  they  said,  a  most  corrupted  translation.  And 
although  this  was  judged  to  be  but  a  very  poor  and  empty  shift, 
yet  even  hereupon  did  His  Majesty  begin  to  bethink  himself  of 
the  good  that  might  ensue  by  a  new  translation,  and  presently 
after  gave  orders  for  this  translation  which  is  now  presented  unto 
thee." 

The   instances   of   mis-translation   which   Reynolds 


246  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

quoted  were  taken  from  the  Great  Bible  and  from  the 
Bishops'  Bible.  In  the  current  Genevan  version  the 
passages  were  correctly  rendered.  Presumably,  there- 
fore, the  point  which  Reynolds  wished  to  make  was 
that  either  the  maligned  Genevan  Bible,  which  was 
correct,  ought  to  be  given  precedence  over  the  official 
Bibles,  which  were  incorrect,  or  else  that  there  should 
be  one  more  effort  made  in  the  field  of  translation. 
James  is  reported  to  have  "professed  that  he  could 
never  yet  see  a  Bible  well  translated  in  English,  but 
the  worst  of  all  his  majesty  thought  the  Geneva  to  be" 
Now  the  Dean  of  Chester,  Dr  Barlow,  is  our  chief 
authority  for  what  passed  between  the  King  and  the 
Conference,  and  his  account  may  probably  be  accepted 
as  substantially  correct.  After  a  grumble  from  the 
Bishop  of  London  that  "  if  every  man's  humour  should 
be  followed  there  would  be  no  end  of  translating,"  the 
Dean's  narrative  goes  on  in  these  words : — 

"Whereupon  his  highness  wished  that  some  especial  pains 
should  be  taken  for  one  uniform  translation,  professing  that  he 
could  never  yet  see  a  Bible  well  translated  in  English,  but  the 
worst  of  all  his  Majesty  thought  the  Geneva  to  be,  and  this  to 
be  done  by  the  best  learned  in  both  the  universities,  after  them 
to  be  reviewed  by  the  bishops  and  the  chief  learned  of  the  church  : 
from  them  to  be  presented  to  the  Privy  Council  ;  and  lastly  to 
be  ratified  by  his  royal  authority,  and  so  this  whole  church  to  be 
bound  unto  it  and  none  other.  Marry  withal  he  gave  this  caveat, 
upon  a  word  cast  out  by  my  Lord  of  London,  that  no  marginal 
notes  should  be  added,  having  found  in  them  which  are  annexed 
to  the  Geneva  translation,  which  he  saw  in  a  Bible  given  him  by 
an  English  lady^  some  notes  very  partial,  untrue,  seditious,  and 
savouring  too  much  of  dangerous  and  traitorous  conceits,  support- 
ing his  opinion  by  Exod.  i.  19,  where  the  marginal  note  alloweth 
disobedience  unto  the  King,  and  2  Chron.  xv.  16,  where  the  note 
taxeth  Asa  for  deposing  his  mother  only  and  not  killing  her." 


JAMES  AND  THE  GENEVAN  BIBLE  247 

James's  own  idea  of  a  Conference  at  which  he  was 
by  way  of  playing  the  part  of  an  impartial  arbitrator, 
may  fairly  be  gathered  from  the  expression  which  he 
used  in  describing  it  to  a  friend  in  Scotland,  and  which 
is  in  full  harmony  with  his  favourite  maxim  of  "no 
Bishop  no  King,"  "  /  have  kept  a  revel  with  the  Puritans" 
he  writes,  " and  have  peppered  them  soundly"     An  un- 
guarded sentence  which  fell  from  one  of  the  speakers, 
as  to  "  district  meetings  "  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
ecclesiastical  questions,  seemed  so  suggestive  of  Presby- 
terian methods  that  it  threw  the  royal  president  into  a 
fury.     "  No,"  he  cried,  "  for  then  Jack  and  Tom  and 
Will  and   Dick   shall  meet  and  censure  me   and   my 
Government.     Stay,  I  pray  you,  Dr  Reynolds,  for  one 
seven  years  before  you  ask  that  of  me,  and  if  then  you 
find   me   pursy,   and    fat,   and    my  windpipes   stuffed, 
perhaps  I  will  hearken  unto  you,  for  let  that  Govern- 
ment be  once  up  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  kept  in  breath. 
Scottish  Presbytery  agreeth  as  well  with  monarchy  as 
God  and  the  Devil." 

No  wonder  that  the  bishops  were  in  ecstasies,  and 
that  Bancroft  gave  thanks  to  heaven  upon  his  knees 
for  "the  singular  mercy  of  such  a  King  as,  since 
Christ,  the  like  had  not  been  seen."  But  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that,  in  one  particular,  James  can  have  been 
rightly  reported,  for  the  really  astonishing  mendacious- 
ness  involved  in  the  reference  which  is  said  to  have 
been  made  by  him  to  the  Genevan  Bible  is  such  as 
to  cause  "credulity  to  hesitate,  and  fancy  to  stare 
aghast."  Even  for  the  King  it  must  have  required 
a  strong  effort  to  affect  a  merely  incidental  acquaint- 


248  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

ance  with  a  Bible  with  which,  in  point  of  fact,  he  had 
been  only  too  painfully   familiar   ever   since  he  was  a 
boy,  which  had  been  preached  into  him  every  day  for 
years  and  years,  the  text  of  which  he  had  used  for  his 
own  erudite  expositions,  a  Bible,  moreover,  which  had 
been  printed  in  Scotland,  and  expressly  dedicated  to 
him  not  thirty  years  before.     Indeed  it  was  just  be- 
cause he  knew  this  Genevan  version  so  well  that  he 
had  so  strong  a  political   aversion  to  it,  and  he  can 
hardly   have    expected   even   the   most  servile   of   his 
courtiers  to  believe  in  his  little  story  of  the  kind  lady's 
present.      Still   we   cannot   but   feel    thankful   for  the 
happy  chance  through  which  the  request  put  forward 
by  Reynolds,  possibly  as  a  forlorn  hope,  was  left  to 
the   decision  not  of  the  bishops  but  of  the  King,  and 
of  a   King   such  as  was   James   I.     Had   the    Puritan 
been  a  past-master  of  diplomacy  he  could   not   have 
made   a  more   skilful    move.     Except   for   the   theolo- 
gical   richness   of    the    soil    on   which    his    Bible-seed 
happened    by    good    fortune    to    fall,   it   seems    more 
than  likely  that  the  last  suggestion  of  the  brow-beaten 
minority  would  have  shared  the  fate  of  the  Millenary 
Petition  as  a  whole.     And  what  that  fate  was  appears 
plainly    enough   from   the   character   of    the    Book   of 
Canons  of  1604,  which  embodied  the  practical  reply  of 
Church  and  Crown  to  the  petitioners.     Had  so  great 
a  misfortune  befallen  our  ancestors  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  England  might  have  remained  up  to  this  very 
day  distracted  by  the  conflicting  claims  of  rival  ver- 
sions of  the   Scriptures,  and  we  might  even   now  be 
calling  out,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Corinthian  converts  of 


COMMITTEE  OF  TRANSLATORS  249 

St  Paul,  "  I  am  of  Tyndale,"  "  I  am  of  Coverdale,"  "  I 
am  of  Geneva." 

When  the  Conference  was  dismissed,  no  one  could 
have  had  any  idea  that  James  intended  to  adopt  a 
proposal  which  seems  rather  to  have  been  extemporised 
as  a  happy  thought  than  deliberately  formulated  as  one 
of  the  articles  of  the  Petition.  But  Reynold's  request 
had  fallen  on  no  unwilling  ear,  and  it  laid  hold  at  once 
upon  the  King's  imagination.  He  well  knew  that 
in  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  substantial  progress  had 
been  made  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  scholarship.  The 
notion  of  directing  in  his  own  royal  person  a  great 
national  enterprise  such  as  the  production  of  a  trans- 
lation, which,  while  surpassing  all  its  predecessors  in 
fidelity  and  in  literary  excellence,  should  also  be 
freed  from  the  disfigurement  of  undesirable  anno- 
tations, was  as  gratifying  both  to  his  self-confi- 
dence and  to  his  vanity  as  it  was  thoroughly  con- 
genial to  his  tastes.  The  business  was  not  allowed  to 
sleep.  By  the  22nd  of  July  1604,  which  is  the  date 
of  his  letter  to  Bancroft  on  the  subject,  all  the  main 
preliminaries  appear  to  have  been  settled,  and  the 
scheme  was  fairly  launched. 

The  first  practical  step  had  naturally  been  to  select 
a  competent  committee  of  revisers.  Most  probably 
the  King,  whose  whole  heart  was  in  the  matter,  con- 
sulted both  Bancroft  and  the  Universities,  but  to  whom 
the  ultimate  decision  was  entrusted  is  uncertain.  It 
is  evident,  from  what  is  known  of  the  names  on  the  list 
which  has  come  down  to  us,  that  all  possible  pains  were 
taken  to  secure  the  services  of  the  best  available  men. 


25©  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

The  only  qualification  which  was  held  to  be  indispens- 
able was  that  the  revisers  should  be  Biblical  students 
of  proved  capacity,  Puritan  Churchmen  and  Anglican 
Churchmen,  linguists  and  theologians,  laymen  and 
divines,  worked  harmoniously  side  by  side.  Fifty-four 
of  the  most  prominent  scholars  appear  to  have  been 
originally  selected  to  constitute  the  committee,  but  the 
lists  that  have  come  down  to  us  include  the  names  of 
only  forty-seven.  Why  this  was  so  we  have  no  informa- 
tion, nor  has  any  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  dis- 
crepancy been  hitherto  offered.  What,  however,  is  of 
more  importance  is  that  the  appointments  were  in  no 
case  lightly  made,  but  that  the  utmost  care  and  catho- 
licity of  mind  was  exercised  in  the  matter.  To  this 
statement  there  is,  it  must  be  admitted,  one  conspicuous 
exception.  Hugh  Broughton  was  probably  the  greatest 
Hebraist  of  the  time,  but  he  was  a  man  of  such  un- 
governable temper,  and  one  so  impossible  to  work  with, 
that  his  co-operation  was  not  invited. 

The  revisers  were  organised  in  six  companies.  Two 
of  these  held  their  meetings  at  Oxford,  two  at  Cam- 
bridge, two  at  Westminster.  The  representative  of  the 
Puritans  at  Hampton  Court,  Dr  Reynolds,  one  of  the 
foremost  scholars  of  the  day,  was  on  the  Oxford 
committee,  and  among  his  colleagues  was  Dr  Miles 
Smith,  who  "had  Hebrew  at  his  finger  ends,"  and 
was,  moreover,  one  of  the  final  supervisors  and  the 
author  of  the  very  interesting  and  instructive  pre- 
face which,  though  there  is  no  room  for  it  in  our  over- 
crowded Bibles,  was  prefixed  to  the  completed  work 
in    1611. 


ALLOTMENT  OF  THE  WORK  251 

To  each  of  the  six  companies  a  certain  portion  of 
the  Bible  was  allotted  to  work  upon.  Their  common 
basis  was  the  Bishops'  version  of  1568.  In  respect  of 
text,  the  revisers  were  practically  no  better  off  than  the 
bishops.  What  is  usually  called  the  "  Received  "  text, 
is,  technically  speaking,  of  later  date,  for  in  the  case  of 
the  Old  Testament  that  text  is  the  edition  of  Van 
der  Hooght,  published  in  Amsterdam  in  1705,  and  in 
the  case  of  the  New  Testament  the  Elzevir  edition  of 
1625.  Still,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  text  nearly 
identical  with  this  "  Received  "  text  forms  the  basis  of 
the  Bishops'  Bible. 

In  the  absence  of  a  standard  edition  of  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  Old  Testament  there  were  at  least 
three  Hebrew  Bibles  to  which  reference  could  be  made, 
without  including  either  the  great  Rabbinical  Bible  of 
1 5 19  and  1525,  or  the  Complutensian  and  Antwerp 
Polyglots.  With  regard  to  the  New  Testament,  the 
companies  appear  not  to  have  confined  themselves 
exclusively  to  any  one  existing  text,  but  to  have  made 
use  of  much  the  same  materials  as  were  accessible  to 
Tyndale,  and  to  have  attached  also  great  weight  to  the 
modifications  which  had  been  introduced  by  Beza  into 
the  texts  of  Erasmus  and  of  Henry  Stephens.  In 
fact  they  consulted  every  version,  whether  English, 
Latin,  French,  Italian,  German,  or  Spanish,  which  they 
found  in  circulation  at  the  time,  and  were  largely  in- 
debted to  the  Genevan  Bible,  to  the  Rheims  New 
Testament,  to  Pagninus,  Miinster,  and  to  the  Tre- 
nellius-Junius  translation  of  a  somewhat  later  date. 

The   necessary    preliminaries    once    arranged,    the 


252  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

next  step  was  to  provide  for  such  expenses  as  were 
involved  in  the  cost  of  travelling  and  of  maintenance, 
and  also  for  the  remuneration  of  those  serving  on  the 
committee.  A  code  of  instructions  was  at  the  same 
time  drawn  up  for  their  guidance,  explaining  the 
main  principles  on  which  the  revision  was  to  be  con- 
ducted. The  raising  of  the  money  which  was  needed 
proved  to  be  a  task  of  considerable  difficulty,  and  a 
source  accordingly  of  vexatious  delay.  Gold  was  of 
much  account  in  the  palace  of  the  English  Solomon, 
and  the  demand  for  it  persistently  exceeded  the  supply. 
James  was  without  doubt  greatly  interested  in  bring- 
ing to  a  successful  issue  the  enterprise  which  he  had 
initiated,  but  contributions  towards  it  in  cash  were 
beyond  him,  and  the  response  to  his  invitations  for 
pecuniary  support  was  unfortunately  by  no  means 
cordial.  Eventually  the  universities  were  directed  to 
supply  board  and  lodging  for  the  committees  located 
with  them,  private  donations  did  something  for  those 
at  Westminster,  and  for  the  most  part  the  revisers 
found  their  ultimate  reward  in  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ment. 

The  instructions  to  which  reference  has  been  made 
appear  on  the  whole  to  have  been  admirably  conceived, 
and  a  copy  of  them  was  presented  to  each  of  the  six 
companies.     They  ran  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  ordinary  Bible  read  in  the  Church,  commonly  called  the 
Bishops'  Bible,  to  be  followed,  and  as  little  altered  as  the  truth  of 
the  original  will  admit. 

2.  The  names  of  the  prophets  and  the  holy  writers  with  the  other 
names  of  the  text,  to  be  retained  as  nigh  as  may  be,  accordingly  as 
they  were  vulgarly  used. 


INSTRUCTIONS  TO  THE  COMPANIES  253 

3.  The  old  ecclesiastical  words  to  be  kept,  viz.,  the  word  church 
not  to  be  translated  congregation,  etc. 

4.  When  a  word  hath  divers  significations,  that  to  be  kept 
which  hath  been  most  commonly  used  by  the  most  ancient  fathers, 
being  agreeable  to  the  propriety  of  the  place  and  the  analogy  of 
the  faith. 

5.  The  division  of  the  chapters  to  be  altered  either  not  at  all  or 
as  little  as  may  be,  if  necessity  so  require. 

6.  No  marginal  notes  at  all  to  be  affixed,  but  only  for  the 
explanation  of  the  Hebrew  or  Greek  words  which  cannot,  with- 
out some  circumlocution,  so  briefly  and  fitly  be  expressed  in  the 
text. 

7.  Such  quotations  of  places  to  be  marginally  set  down  as  shall 
serve  for  the  fit  reference  of  one  Scripture  to  another. 

8.  Every  particular  man  of  each  company  to  take  the  same 
chapter  or  chapters  :  and  having  translated  or  amended  them 
severally  by  himself  where  he  thinketh  good,  all  to  meet  together, 
confer  what  they  have  done,  and  agree  for  their  parts  what  shall 
stand. 

g.  As  any  one  company  hath  dispatched  any  one  book  in  this 
manner,  they  shall  send  it  to  the  rest  to  be  considered  of 
seriously  and  judiciously,  for  his  Majesty  is  very  careful  in  this 
point. 

10.  If  any  company,  upon  the  review  of  the  book  so  sent,  doubt 
or  diflfer  upon  any  place,  to  send  them  word  thereof,  note  the 
place,  and  withall  send  the  reasons  :  to  which  if  they  consent  not, 
the  difference  to  be  compounded  at  the  general  meeting,  which 
is  to  be  of  the  chief  persons  of  each  company  at  the  end  of  the 
work. 

11.  When  any  place  of  special  obscurity  is  doubted  of,  letters 
to  be  directed  by  authority  to  be  sent  to  any  learned  man  in  the  land 
for  his  judgment. 

12.  Letters  to  be  sent  from  every  bishop  to  the  rest  of  his 
clergy,  admonishing  them  of  this  translation  in  hand,  and  to  move 
and  charge  as  many  as  being  skilful  in  the  tongues,  and  having 
taken  pains  in  that  kind,  to  send  his  particular  observations  to  the 
company  either  at  Westminster,  Cambridge,  or  Oxford. 

13.  The  directors  in  each  company  to  be  the  Deans  of  West- 
minster and  Chester  for  that  place,  and  the  King's  professors  in 
Hebrew  or  Greek  in  either  University. 

14.  These  translations  to  be  used  when  they  agree  better  with 


254  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

the  text  than  the  Bishops'  Bible  :  Tindale's,  Matthew's,  Coverdale's, 
Whitchurch's,*  Geneva. 

15.  Three  or  four  of  the  most  ancient  and  grave  divines  in 
either  of  the  universities,  not  employed  in  translating,  to  be  assigned 
by  the  Vice- Chancellor  upon  conference  with  the  rest  of  the  Heads 
to  be  overseers  of  the  translations,  as  well  Hebrew  as  Greek,  for 
the  better  observation  of  the  fourth  rule  above  specified. 

Thus  each  company,  so  soon  as  they  had  collectively 
completed  their  version  of  any  one  book  out  of  the 
number  of  those  for  which  they  were  responsible,  would 
send  a  transcript  of  it  to  each  of  the  other  five  companies 
for  their  independent  criticism,  so  that  every  part  of  the 
work  would  go  through  the  hands  of  the  whole  body  of 
the  revisers.  Under  this  arrangement  each  individual 
translator  would,  to  begin  with,  have  made  his  own 
translation,  and  this  translation  would  have  been  con- 
sidered by  the  entire  company  to  which  he  belonged. 
Having  reached  this  stage,  that  particular  company's 
suggested  version  would  be  passed  on  for  the  separate 
judgment  of  each  of  the  other  five  companies,  and  the 
version,  as  thus  amended,  would  come  finally  before  the 
select  committee  of  revision,  for  which  provision  was 
made  in  Rule  10. 

How  far  the  above  rules  were  adhered  to  as  a 
matter  of  fact  we  cannot  tell.  Almost  all  that  is 
known  as  to  the  procedure  in  detail  is  confined  to  the 
statements  made  in  the  Preface,-f-  a  document  which, 
but  for  its  length,  might  well  be  printed  in  our  Bibles 
with  far  greater  edification  for  the  reader  than  he  is 

*  I.e.,  the  1 549  Folio  reprint  of  the  Great  Bible, 
t  A  reprint  of  this  Preface  can  be  procured  for  a  nominal  price 
from  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  ORGANISED  CO-OPERATION   255 

likely  to  derive  from  the  servile  "  Dedication "  which 
has  been  so  carefully  reproduced  for  his  benefit. 

It  is  evident  from  the  code  of  instructions  that 
the  central  principle  of  the  undertaking,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Genevan  Bible,  was  the  principle  of  organised 
co-operation.  Only  by  such  a  method,  combined  with 
an  interchange  of  completed  work,  can  harmony,  even- 
ness, and  unity  of  tone  be  even  hoped  for,  and  the 
special  gifts  of  individual  revisers  be  made  to  sub- 
serve the  general  purpose  of  the  collective  body.  It 
is  supposed  that  some  three  years  were  spent  in 
arranging  for  the  payment  of  expenses,  in  the  individual 
study  of  the  text,  and  in  labours  of  an  anticipatory 
character,  three  more  in  organised  and  joint  work, 
and  a  brief  nine  months  in  a  final  revision  in  London 
by  the  representative  committee  of  six,  each  of  whom 
received  as  his  remuneration  thirty  pounds  from  the 
Company  of  Stationers. 

In  161 1  the  Authorised  Version,  a  folio  volume  in 
black-letter  type,  was  issued  to  the  public.  It  had  no 
notes,  and  the  interpretation  of  it  was  therefore  left 
perfectly  free.  The  title-page  speaks  of  the  version  as 
a  "  translation,"  and  it  bears  the  familiar  words  "  ap- 
pointed to  be  read  in  churches."  But  in  point  of  fact 
the  King's  Bible  is  one  of  a  long  chain  of  revisions, 
and  no  evidence  is  forthcoming  to  show  that  any 
formal  appointment  as  to  its  liturgical  use  was  ever 
made  whether  by  the  King  or  by  Parliament, 
by  Convocation  or  the  Privy  Council.  In  any  case 
none  was  necessary.  Not  by  any  means  all  at  once, 
but  gradually   and   slowly,  this   grand   work   took   up 


256  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

the  position  to  which  it  was  entitled  by  its  intrinsic 
merits,  a  position  from  which,  as  the  Bible  of  the 
people,  it  does  not  seem  as  yet  likely  to  be  dislodged* 
Including  what  are  called  "portions"  it  has  already 
been  translated  into  something  like  four  hundred 
different  languages  and  dialects,  and  not  less  than 
three  million  copies  of  it  are  now  year  by  year  poured 
out  from  the  English  Press.  In  sober  earnest  may  we 
say  that  "  its  sound  has  gone  forth  into  all  lands,  and 
its  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world." 

The  revisers  had  indeed  good  reason  to  rejoice  in 
the  result  of  their  labours.  They  had  devised  for  the 
jewel  entrusted  to  them  a  suitable  setting,  and  had 
succeeded  in  giving  to  their  Bible  an  excellence  of  form 
that  was  worthy  of  its  substance.  Avoiding  both  the 
euphuisms  of  the  age  before  them,  and  the  affected 
mannerisms  of  the  age  that  was  just  beginning,  they 
had  now  once  and  for  ever  rendered  permanent  that 
consecrated  diction  and  phraseology,  vigorous,  popular, 
and  idiomatic,  which  had  come  down  to  them  by  a 
long  tradition,  which  had  been  in  process  of  formation 
from  Wycliffe  onwards,  and  which  Tyndale  and  Cover- 
dale  had  adopted,  cherished,  and  brought  well  nigh  to 
perfection.  They  had  clothed  the  sacred  Scriptures  in 
a  language  as  appropriately  distinctive  to  them  as  are 
the  languages  of  philosophy,  of  medicine,  and  of  law, 
and  had  made  them  to  be  an  abiding  anthology  of  what- 

*  The  University  Presses  still  sell,  year  by  year,  fully  ten  times 
as  many  copies  of  the  Authorised  as  of  the  Revised  Version.  In 
1899  Convocation  authorised  the  use  of  the  Revised  Version  in 
churches,  and  a  folip  edition  has  been  published  for  the  purpose. 


CAUSES  FAVOURING  THE  TRANSLATORS     257 

ever   is   most  beautiful  in  that   Saxon  inheritance  of 
which  we  are  all  proud. 

But  this  goodly  company  of  scholars  were  at  the 
same  time  well  aware  that  though  much  had  been 
done  much  would  yet  remain  to  do.  They  were  the 
last  men  to  claim  finality  for  their  work.  The  world 
does  not  stand  still,  nor  did  knowledge  complete  its 
course  in  the  seventeenth  century  of  our  era.  In 
point  of  sheer  literary  excellence  it  is  indeed  hardly  con- 
ceivable that  the  Bible  of  161 1  will  ever  be  surpassed, 
and  it  was  accordingly  on  other  lines  that  prospects  of 
improvement  were  at  a  later  date  to  open  out.  But  to 
this  aspect  of  the  subject  we  shall  return  by-and-by  in 
our  next  and  concluding  chapter.  The  description 
which  has  been  given  of  the  evolution  of  our  Authorised 
Version  may  now  perhaps  best  be  completed  by  a 
consideration  of  the  happy  conjunction  of  circumstances 
to  which  its  unique  greatness  is  in  part  at  any  rate  to 
be  ascribed. 

(i)  In  the  first  place,  then,  the  King's  Bible  was  in- 
debted for  its  success  to  the  personal  qualifications  of  the 
revisers.  They  were  the  picked  scholars  and  linguists 
of  their  day.  They  were  also  men  of  profound  and 
unaffected  piety.     Let  them  speak  for  themselves. 

"  In  what  sort  did  these  assemble  .-*  In  the  trust  of  their  own 
knowledge,  or  of  their  sharpness  of  wit,  or  deepness  of  judgment  ? 
At  no  hand.  They  trusted  in  Him  that  hath  the  key  of  David, 
opening  and  no  man  shutting  ;  they  prayed  to  the  Lord,  O  let  Thy 
Scriptures  be  my  pure  delight ;  let  me  not  be  deceived  in  them, 
neither  let  me  deceive  by  them.  In  this  confidence  and  with  this 
devotion  did  they  assemble  together."  * 

*  The  quotations  are  from  the  Preface  to  the  Authorised 
Version. 


258  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

They  spared  no  pains  to  make  their  work  as  perfect 

as  they  could. 

"  Neither  did  we  think  (it)  much  to  consult  the  translators  or 
commentators,  Chaldee,  Hebrew,  Syrian,  Greek  or  Latin  ;  no,  nor 
the  Spanish,  French,  ItaHan,  or  Dutch  ;  neither  did  we  disdain  to 
revise  that  which  we  had  done,  and  to  bring  back  to  the  anvil  that 
which  we  had  hammered^ 

They  were  not  the  slaves  but  the  masters  of  the 
rules  which  had  been  framed  for  their  guidance. 

"Is  the  kingdom  of  God  become  words  and  syllables?  Why 
should  we  be  in  bondage  to  them  if  we  may  be  free  ?  " 

They  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of  the  all- 
important  fact  that  the  English  Bible  must  be  a  book 
not  for  an  inner  circle  of  trained  scholars  or  theologians, 
but  for  the  common  people,  and  for  ordinary  men 
and  ordinary  women. 

"We  have,  on  the  one  side,  avoided  the  scrupulosity  of  the 
Puritanes  who  leave  the  old  ecclesiastical  words,  as  when  they 
put  washing  iox  baptism^  and  congregation  instead  of  church;  as 
also  on  the  other  side  we  have  shunned  the  obscurity  of  the 
Papists,  that  since  they  must  needs  translate  the  Bible,  yet  by 
the  language  thereof  it  may  be  kept  from  being  understood.  But 
we  desire  that  the  Scripture  may  be  understood  even  of  the  very 
vulgar." 

From  this  point  of  view  the  predominance  of  Saxon 
words  in  this  verson  is  very  remarkable.  As  compared 
with  Latin  words  they  actually  constitute  some  nine- 
tenths  of  it.  In  Shakespeare  the  proportion  is  approxi- 
mately eighty-five  per  cent,  in  Swift  ninety,  in  Johnsor 
seventy-five,  in  Gibbon  seventy.  In  the  Lord's  Prayei 
no  less  than  fifty-nine  words  out  of  sixty-five  are  o 
Saxon  origin. 


HEIRS  TO  A  CENTURY  OF  LABOUR  259 

(2)  Secondly,  James's  revisers  felt  themselves  occu- 
pied in  a  great  national  undertaking,  promoted  with  the 
utmost  eagerness  by  the  King  himself,  and  supported 
by  the  full  concurrence  and  approval  of  Church  and 
State.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  invite  attention  to 
the  contrast  of  such  a  position  with  the  uphill  struggles 
of  a  pioneer  such  as  Tyndale,  working  in  isolation  as 
a  lonely  exile  under  the  ban  of  the  authorities,  and  in 
almost  daily  expectation  of  martyrdom. 

(3)  Thirdly,  they  had  ready  to  hand  the  rich  results 
of  nearly  a  century  of  diligent  and  unintermittent 
labour  in  the  field  of  Biblical  study.  The  great  lines 
which  were  to  be  followed  had  long  since  been  marked 
out  by  Wycliffe,  Tyndale,  and  Coverdale,  while  useful 
sidelights  could  be  derived  from  the  Latin  and  modern 
translations  above  enumerated.  It  is  very  essential  to 
bear  this  consideration  in  mind  if  we  are  to  take  a 
just  view  of  the  literary  style  of  our  Authorised  Version. 
For  its  diction  goes  back  at  least  as  far  as  Henry  VIII. 
Those  to  whom  it  was  entrusted  were  appointed  not  to 
translate  "  de  novo  "  but  to  revise.  And  for  this  purpose 
they  had  before  them  the  text  of  the  Bishops'  Bible, 
itself  a  revison  of  the  Great  Bible,  which  again,  through 
"  Matthew's  "  Bible,  had  been  a  revision  of  Tyndale  and 
Coverdale. 

"  Truly  we  never  thought  to  make  a  new  translation,  nor  yet  to 
make  of  a  bad  one  a  good  one,  but  to  make  a  good  one  better,  or 
out  of  many  good  ones  one  principal  good  one." 

If  any  one  still  feels  a  doubt  on  this  matter  we 
would  invite  him  to  do  two  things.     Let  him  compare 


26o  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

the  style  of  the  Preface  with  the  style  of  the  Authorised 
Version,  and  then  let  him  compare  the  latter  with 
Tyndale's  translation,  say  of  the  Gospels.  He  will 
probably  be  sufficiently  satisfied  that  our  Biblical 
phraseology  was,  in  the  main,  the  inheritance  of  the 
revisers  and  not  their  creation,  and  he  will  be  ready 
to  adopt  their  own  explicit  declaration  when  they 
affirm  that  the  end  at  which  they  aimed  was,  that, 
out  of  the  plenteous  store  of  translations  into  various 
tongues,  and  out  of  the  greatly  enriched  vocabulary 
at  their  command,  they  might  ''make  the  good 
better^ 

(4)  We  pass  on  now  to  endeavour  to  indicate  one 
further  advantage  which  was  enjoyed  by  the  scholars 
and  divines  whose  relation  to  their  time  it  is  so  desirable 
that  we  should  adequately  appreciate,  and  which  we  may 
perhaps  describe  as  a  certain  congeniality  of  religious 
climate.  Their  own  sympathies  were  in  perfect  touch 
with  the  new-born  religious  enthusiasm  that  surrounded 
them.  There  is  perhaps  no  better  way  of  realising  this 
subtle  influence  than  through  a  mental  comparison  of 
our  own  age  with  theirs.  Why  is  it,  for  example,  that 
the  great  architects  of  the  Middle  Ages  could  design 
and  build  a  Gothic  Cathedral,  while  our  latter-day 
architects  cannot?  Why  is  it  that  the  faces  which 
looked  down  on  Fra  Angelico  have  now  withdrawn 
themselves  from  our  sight  ?  Why  is  it  that  we  derive 
from  the  prayers  and  collects  of  Cranmer's  translation 
an  impression  so  totally  different  from  that  which  is 
made  upon  our  minds  by  the  laboured  and  self-con- 
scious efforts  of  our  nineteenth  century  divines  in  their 


THEY  BREATHED  A  RELIGIOUS  AIR  261 

cx:casional  excursions  into  the  field  of  devotional  com- 
position? If  only  we  could  formulate  some  adequate 
solution  of  these  problems,  we  should  have  taken  a 
long  step  towards  the  comprehension  of  the  suggested 
contrast. 

It  is  in  any  case  a  fact  of  history  that  the  main 
interest  of  King  James's  age  was  as  predominantly 
theological  as  the  main  interest  of  our  age  is 
predominantly  scientific.  "Theology  rules  there," 
Grotius  wrote  of  England  in  161 3,  and  a  like  impres- 
sion was  recorded  by  the  great  scholar  Casaubon 
after  a  brief  visit  to  "the  wisest  fool  in  Christendom." 
The  change  was  due  to  the  extraordinary  moral  effect 
produced  by  the  popularisation  of  the  Bible,  an  effect 
which  we  see  taking  literary  shape  both  in  Milton  and 
in  Bunyan.  Nor  can  it  have  escaped  the  observation 
of  any  one  who  takes  an  interest  in  his  times  that  a 
corresponding  change  has  long  been  developing  itself 
with  us  owing  to  the  popularisation  of  physical  science. 
Then  the  civilisation  of  England  was  saturated  with 
religion.  Now  it  is  saturated  with  evolution.  Then  it 
was,  so  to  speak,  face  to  face  with  the  Creator.  Now 
it  is  immersed  in  the  study  of  His  creation.  Then 
every  one  talked  and  thought  theology.  Now  every 
one  talks  and  thinks  science.  We  wear,  for  general 
purposes,  the  conventional  garb  of  Christianity,  and 
in  our  sympathetic  instincts  and  humanitarian  morals 
there  breathes  a  true  Christian  spirit ;  but  we  take 
our  dogmas,  so  far  as  we  take  any  at  all,  rather  from 
the  pulpits  of  science  than  from  those  of  theology; 
while   between  our  everyday  modes  of  thought,  belief, 


i62  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

and  expression,  and  those  of  an  orthodox  text-book, 
there  would  appear  to  be  no  inconsiderable  a  contrast. 
The  reflex  influences  of  this  difference  of  intellectual 
habit  must  not  be  ignored  even  though  they  may  defy 
any  verbal  definition.  Revisers  are  as  human  as  their 
fellow  men,  and  consciously  or  unconsciously  they 
become  affected  by  the  spirit  of  their  age. 

The  religious  movement  to  which  we  are  inviting 
attention,  as  bearing  upon  the  general  mental  tempera- 
mer^t  of  the  early  seventeenth  century,  was  soon  to 
come  into  conflict  with  general  culture  through  the 
development  of  a  narrowing  Puritanism.  But  the  con- 
flict had  not  yet  begun.  Far  from  being  estranged  the 
one  from  the  other,  religion  and  culture  were  as  yet  firm 
friends,  and  their  friendship  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
life  and  poetry  of  Milton.  The  movement  dates  back 
from  the  time  when  the  Great  Bible  was  first  ordered 
to  be  set  up  in  Churches. 

"The  whole  moral  effect,"  writes  Green,*  "which  is  produced 
nowadays  by  the  religious  newspaper,  the  tract,  the  essay,  the 
lecture,  the  missionary  report,  the  sermon,  was  then  produced  by 
the  Bible  alone  .  .  .  Sunday  after  Sunday,  day  after  day,  the  crowds 
that  gathered  round  Bonner's  Bibles  in  the  nave  of  St  Paul's  or  the 
family  group  that  hung  on  the  words  of  the  Geneva  Bible  in  the 
devotional  exercises  at  home,  were  leavened  with  a  new  literature. 
Legends  and  annals,  war-song  and  psalm,  state-rolls  and  bio- 
graphies, the  mighty  voices  of  prophets,  the  parables  of  evangelists, 
stories  of  mission  journeys,  of  perils  by  the  sea  and  among  the 
heathen,  philosophic  arguments,  apocalyptic  visions,  all  were  flung 
broadcast  over  minds  unoccupied  by  any  rival  learning." 

Thus  much,  then,  in  explanation  of  the  "  religious 

*  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  p.  449. 


CO-OPERATIVE  METHOD  OF  WORK  263 

climate  "  whose  sunshine  streamed  down  on  the  King's 
translators,  and  made  them  to  feel  of  good  cheer. 

(5)  Full  weight  must  also  be  given  to  the  benefit 
which,  as  we  have  seen  already,  their  enterprise  derived 
from  that  organised  system  of  co-operative  work  which 
had  borne  such  good  fruit  in  the  Genevan  Bible  of  1560. 
The  organisation  no  doubt  fell  short  of  perfection.  It 
was  a  mistake,  for  instance,  to  divide  the  Books  of  the 
New  Testament  between  the  Oxford  and  Westminster 
Committees,  and  to  reserve  so  short  a  time  for  the  task 
of  final  revision.  But  all  things  considered,  the  plan 
was  well  conceived,  and  although  the  machinery 
might  have  been  improved  upon,  it  could  never  have 
completely  eliminated  the  personal  equation,  the  in- 
herent inequality  of  men's  mental  endowments.  While 
on  the  whole,  therefore,  our  Bible  is  characterised 
above  all  preceding  versions  by  unity  of  tone,  it  is  not 
by  any  means  an  entirely  homogeneous  work,  nor 
would  any  competent  judge  attempt  to  claim  for  the 
translation  of  the  Epistles  the  same  high  standard 
of  excellence  which  marks  the  translation  of  the 
Pentateuch,  the  Psalter,  or  the  Prophets. 

(6)  There  still  remains  one  last  consideration,  last 
in  sequence,  but  most  assuredly  not  last  in  importance, 
to  which  we  desire  to  devote  a  few  words. 

Regard  has  been  had  above  both  to  the  great 
intellectual  eminence,  and  also  to  the  devout  earnest- 
ness and  absorption  in  their  task,  which  characterised 
the  King's  Committee  ;  to  their  grasp  of  the  full  national 
significance  of  the  work  entrusted  to  them  ;  to  the  rich- 
ness of  material  and  tradition  which  they  inherited ;  to 


264  THE  A  UTHORISED  VERSION 

the  sympathetic  religious  temper  of  the  times ;  and  to 
the  well-planned  arrangements  under  which  every  part 
of  the  revision  was  executed,  interchanged,  and  super- 
vised. But  above  and  around  all  this  we  have  to 
remember  the  wonderfully  stimulating  power  of  the 
literary  atmosphere  which  it  was  the  great  good 
fortune  of  our  translators  to  breathe,  an  atmosphere 
which  helped  to  nourish  and  to  foster  in  them  their 
lofty  sense  of  style,  and  to  inspire  them  with  their 
marvellous  sureness  of  artistic  touch. 

The  last  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century  had 
witnessed  an  outburst  of  genius,  whether  in  poetry,  in 
the  drama,  or  in  prose,  to  which  it  would  indeed  be 
difficult  to  find  a  parallel.  The  names  of  Shakespeare, 
Marlowe,  Spenser,  Hooker,  Chapman,  Bacon,  Jonson, 
Sidney,  and,  may  we  not  add,  of  the  author  of  a  work 
which  Froude  has  called  "  the  prose  epic  of  the  modern 
English  nation,"  Richard  Hakluyt,  form  a  galaxy  of 
greatness  before  which  we  can  only  bow  our  heads. 
There  had  been  long  years  of  preparation.  Beneath 
the  surface  of  the  entire  Tudor  period  may  be  felt  the 
pulsations  of  a  widespread  intellectual  restlessness 
and  fermentation  which  heralded  the  advent  of  an  out- 
pouring of  creative  inspiration  that  fairly  takes  away 
our  breath.  Throughout  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  vast 
spiritual  forces  had  been  ceaselessly  at  work  refashion- 
ing, transforming,  fertilising  the  minds  of  men.  For  a 
while  the  black  clouds  of  national  peril  overshadowed 
and  shrouded  their  activity.  But  for  a  while  only. 
Their  hidden  influence  was  not  abated,  and  their 
agency    continued    operative.     The    intellectual    force 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  A  GREAT  PERIOD       265 

of  the  Renaissance,  the  moral  and  religious  force  of  the 
Reformation,  the  social  and  political  force  of  a  newly- 
realised  and  an  ever-increasing  sense  of  national  unity 
and  greatness,  the  economic  force  of  rapidly  expanding 
wealth,  all  these  vitalising  powers  had  been  silently 
transfiguring  the  old  England  of  Catholicism  and 
Feudalism  into  the  England  that  was  to  be.  With 
the  execution  of  Mary  Stuart  and  the  repulse  of  the 
Armada,  the  darkness  rolled  away.  A  terrible  danger, 
nerving  and  bracing  the  whole  community  into  strenuous 
effort,  gave  place  all  at  once  to  an  indescribable  sense  of 
relief  As  it  had  been  in  Greece  after  Marathon,  Platasa, 
and  Salamis,  so  was  it  in  this  land  of  ours  when  the 
Spaniard  spread  his  sails  and  fled  away.  Suddenly, 
almost  as  if  by  magic,  the  world  of  literature  was  seen 
bursting  into  loveliest  blossom,  and  the  national  lan- 
guage clothing  itself  in  strength,  in  richness,  and  in 
power.  Not  in  one  department  of  mental  activity  alone, 
but  in  every  quarter,  there  arose  a  consciousness  of 
quickened  life  and  of  boundless  possibilities.  The 
excitement,  the  hope,  the  buoyancy,  the  aspiration,  the 
intensity  of  a  nation  renewing  its  youth,  roused  every 
faculty  into  a  varied  and  many-sided  alertness.  It 
was  in  some  such  air  as  this  that  the  translators 
of  the  King's  Bible  lived  and  moved  and  had  their 
being. 

And  as  the  glory  of  those  great  years  passed  into 
their  souls,  so  too  did  the  inspiration  of  their  originals 
distil  itself  into  their  pens,  so  that  they  were  enabled 
to  build  up  for  their  successors  an  English  Bible,  which, 
with  all  the  imperfections  which  were  inseparable  from 


266  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

the  incompleteness  of  their  critical  resources  and  from 
the  limitations  of  human  nature,  will  always  be  held  in 
veneration  as  our  noblest  literary  memorial  of  a  splendid 
and  heroic  age. 

In  the  next  and  concluding  chapter  we  shall  proceed 
to  consider  the  causes  which  made  it  necessary  once 
more  to  return  to  the  old  work  of  revision,  and  we  shall 
endeavour  to  render  intelligible  to  ordinary  readers  the 
main  features  in  the  problem  with  which  our  revisers 
were  confronted. 

But  before  entering  upon  this  last  stage  in  our 
journey,  it  may  be  of  advantage  to  cast  a  farewell 
glance  over  the  thousand  years  which  lie  stretched 
between  the  crowning  work  of  King  James's  reign  and 
the  first  landing  of  the  Italian  mission  on  the  shores 
of  Kent. 

Once  again,  then,  let  us  lay  stress  upon  the  fact 
that  the  dominant  feature  in  the  external  history  of  the 
English  Bible  is  its  essential  nationality.  It  is  because 
we  are  Englishmen  that  we  feel  the  full  power  of  its 
appeal.  It  is  the  close  touch  which  its  evolution  has 
maintained  with  the  national  development  and  growth 
which  gives  to  its  annals  their  peculiarly  distinctive 
character.  Our  conversion  to  Christianity  we  largely 
owe  to  the  religious  enthusiasm  and  the  single-hearted 
self-devotion  of  the  Celt.  Where  Rome  had  tried  and 
failed,  there  lona  and  Lindisfarne  tried  again  and  suc- 
ceeded, so  that  while  the  mission  of  Augustine  can 
only  point  to  the  permanent  conversion  of  Kent,  it 
is  the  glory  of  Aidan  that  he  may  claim  to  have 
converted    England.      Our   ecclesiastical    organisation, 


A  RECAPITULATION  267 

discipline,  and   unity,  we  owe  to   the  imperial  genius 
of  Rome. 

Tu  regere  imperio  populos,  Romane,  memento  : 
Hse  tibi  erunt  artes  ;  pacisque  imponere  morem, 
Parcere  subjectis,  et  debellare  superbos. 

"  Thine,  O  Roman,  remember,  to  reign  over  every  race  ; 
These  be  thine  arts,  thy  glories,  the  ways  of  peace  to  proclaim, 
Mercy  to  show  to  the  fallen,  the  proud  with  battle  to  tame." 

{jEneid,  vi.  850.     Bowen's  Translation.) 

But  it  is  neither  to  Celt  nor  to  Roman  that  we  owe 
our  national  Bible.  That  is  a  gift  which  England 
received  at  the  hands  of  her  own  children.  Differing 
in  this  respect  from  the  vernacular  versions  of  the 
Continent,  the  English  Bible  is  not  the  exclusive  work 
of  any  one  man,  as  the  German  Bible  is  the  work  of 
Luther,  but  the  continuous  growth  of  generations. 
Great  as  he  is,  Tyndale  is  but  the  foremost  figure 
among  a  succession  of  men  whose  Biblical  labours 
extend  over  nearly  a  hundred  years,  men  whom  the 
irresistible  spell  of  the  "  Divine  Library "  has  con- 
strained into  its  loving  service,  men  who  were  ready 
to  lay  down  their  life  to  give  the  Scriptures  in  their 
integrity  to  their  fellow-countrymen.  And,  as  one 
generation  has  handed  on  the  torch  to  another,  our 
Bible  has  continued  to  assimilate  the  intellectual 
progress  of  the  nation.  Its  record  is  interwoven  with 
our  native  instincts  of  independence,  of  freedom,  of 
personal  religion.  It  is  the  true  child  of  our  ancestral 
Teutonism,  a  genuine  home  growth,  stamped  on  every 
page  of  its  history  with  our  indelible  Saxon  character. 


268  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

Moreover,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to  show,  this 
Bible  carries  us  back,  in  its  earliest  origins,  far  beyond 
Tyndale  and  the  Reformation  era,  since  it  was  in 
Anglo-Saxon  soil  that  it  first  took  permanent  root. 
If  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  is  more  fertile  in  fragmen- 
tary versions  and  paraphrases  than  the  period  of  the 
Papal  Supremacy,  may  it  not  be  because  the  English 
Church  then  enjoyed  a  temporary  spontaneity  of  develop- 
ment, a  power  of  living  her  own  life  as  the  religious 
expression  of  the  nation,  which  was  lost  to  her  when  she 
had  exchanged  her  liberty  for  tutelage,  and  had  passed 
under  the  centralising  and  imperial  influence  of  Rome  ? 
And  as  with  the  Saxon  period  so  is  it  with  the  faint 
foreshadowings  of  a  Saxon  Bible.  While  Northumbria 
was  the  eye  of  England  and  her  one  centre  of  intel- 
lectual light,  the  saintly  Abbess  of  Whitby,  so  happily 
named  "  Beacon  Bay,"  made  her  religious  house  to  be 
not  merely  a  school  of  theology  but  the  cradle  of 
English  literature.  Here  it  was  that,  under  the  gentle 
guidance  of  the  royal  "  Mother,"  as  Hilda  was  affection- 
ately called,  the  earliest  of  our  poets  was  transformed 
from  a  cowherd  into  a  prophet,  and  became  the  minstrel- 
herald  of  the  Bible  story.  A  few  years  later,  and  we 
find  that  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Psalter  have  been 
rendered,  by  various  hands,  into  the  native  language. 
The  father  of  English  History  and  of  English  Scholar- 
ship, the  venerable  Bede,  is  at  the  same  time  the  oldest 
of  our  long  line  of  Biblical  translators.  Under  the  leaven- 
ing influence  of  Roman  culture,  Art  steps  in  to  pictorial- 
ise  on  the  walls  of  the  churches  the  great  scenes  of  which 
Caedmon  had  sung  to   the  homesteads  of  the  hillside, 


THE  PRE-REFORMATION  PERIOD  269 

just  as,  at  a  later  date,  she  was  to  dramatise  them  in 
Miracle-Plays  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  more  centralised 
population  of  the  towns.  The  most  national  of  our 
English  Kings,  Alfred  the  Great,  follows  eagerly  in  the 
track  of  Bede  and  of  Aldhelm.  With  the  Norman 
Conquest  there  comes  not  merely  a  political  but  a 
religious  change.  Partly  on  account  of  the  humilia- 
tion of  the  Saxon  tongue,  the  popularisation  of  the 
Bible  receives  a  sudden  and  prolonged  check.  The 
energies  of  the  Latin  Church  concentrate  themselves 
upon  the  necessary  task  of  organisation  and  discipline, 
and  the  Scriptures  seem  hidden  away  behind  the  high 
altar  of  medieval  sacerdotalism.  Like  the  sea -god 
Glaucus  in  Plato's  Republic^  they  become  overlaid  and 
incrusted  with  an  accretion  of  tradition  and  legend  that 
faithfully  reflects  the  wonder-loving  and  superstitious 
temper  of  the  times.  The  sacred  Book,  even  in  its 
Latin  dress,  only  emerges  to  be  stretched,  like  a 
prisoner  condemned  to  the  torture,  on  the  pitiless 
rack  of  the  scholastic  logic.  In  the  fourteenth  century 
the  instinct  of  nationality  puts  forth  its  strength, 
the  long-repressed  vitality  of  the  native  character  and 
of  the  native  tongue  revives  in  Wyclifife,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  our  history,  the  Latin  Vulgate  of  the  Church 
is  confronted  with  an  English  Bible  for  the  people. 
But  Wycliffe  was  born  before  his  time,  and  in  the  next 
century  the  returning  wave  all  but  submerges  the  pre- 
mature religious  revival,  while,  amid  the  clash  of  civil 
war,  the  chime  of  the  church  bells  is  drowned  by  the 
noise  of  drum  and  trumpet.  At  last  there  breaks  upon  the 
Western  world  the  spring  morning  of  the  Renaissance, 


270  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION 

and  following  close  upon  the  steps  of  the  "  Humanists  " 
the  study  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  originals  marks 
a  new  departure  in  the  field  of  Scripture. 

Then  comes  the  Reformation,  when,  launched  by 
Tyndale  upon  that  angry  sea,  the  English  Bible  and  its 
fortunes  are  caught  up  at  once  into  the  eddying  and 
shifting  currents,  and  for  a  while  all  seems  uncertainty. 
But,  with  the  unforbidden  circulation  of  the  Coverdale 
version  of  1535,  the  cause  in  whose  support  Tyndale 
was  awaiting  his  death  in  Vilvorde  prison  is  seen  to  be 
practically  won.  The  martyr's  dying  prayer  that  the 
King  of  England's  eyes  might  be  opened  now  so  far 
receives  an  answer  that  Henry's  political  Protestantism 
carries  with  it  the  authorisation,  in  1537,  of  a  people's 
Bible  in  the  people's  language.  Version  now  follows 
version  in  quick  succession,  each  taking  its  special  colour- 
ing from  the  circumstances  which  gave  it  birth,  until 
the  great  series  is  closed  for  many  generations  by  that 
"monument  more  durable  than  brass,"  which,  though 
we  owe  it  to  the  idiosyncrasies  of  a  Stuart  King, 
reflects  for  us  the  full  lustre  of  our  Elizabethan 
literature. 

After  all,  however,  the  Authorised  Version  was  but 
the  best  of  many  revisions,  and  now,  once  more,  after  a 
reign  of  nearly  nine  generations,  its  capacity  of  assimi- 
lation has  come  to  be  tested  afresh,  and  yet  another 
version  has  appeared  to  link  the  Victorian  era  with  the 
far-off  centuries  of  Bede  and  of  Alfred  through  the 
continuity  of  our  national  Bible. 


"  Nothing  is  begun  and  perfected  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
later  thoughts  are  thought  to  be  the  wiser." 

"  Zeal  to  promote  the  common  good,  whether  it  be  by  devising 
anything  ourselves,  or  revising  that  which  hath  been  laboured  by 
others,  deserveth  certainly  much  respect  and  esteem,  but  yet  findeth 
but  cold  entertainment  in  the  world  .  .  .  and  if  there  be  any  hole 
left  for  cavil  to  enter  (and  cavil  if  it  do  not  find  a  hole  will  make 
one),  it  is  sure  to  be  misconstrued  and  in  danger  to  be  con- 
demned." 

{Pref.  to  Authorised  Version^ 


"The  real  text  of  the  sacred  writers  does  not  lie  in  any 
manuscript  or  edition,  but  is  dispersed  in  them  all.  'Tis  com- 
petently exact  in  the  worst  MS.  now  extant,  nor  is  one  article  of 
faith  or  moral  precept  either  perverted  or  lost  in  them,  choose  as 
awkwardly  as  you  will.  .  .  .  Make  your  30,000  variations  as  many 
more  .  .  .  even  put  them  into  the  hands  of  a  knave  or  a  fool,  and 
yet  with  the  most  sinistrous  and  absurd  choice  he  shall  not  so 
disguise  Christianity  but  that  every  feature  of  it  will  still  be  the 
same." 

Richard  Bentley^ 
1713  A.D. 


"In  vitium  ducit  culpae  fuga  si  caret  arte." 

"The  zeal  to  shun  mistakes  may,  if  unchecked 
By  love  of  art,  beget  a  new  defect." 

Horace — Ars  Poet. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   WORK  OF   REVISION 

It  was  pointed  out*  in  the  course  of  the  last  chapter 
that  in  the  selection  of  scholars  to  serve  on  the  King's 
Committee  of  Revision  there  had  been  one  notable 
omission.  The  well-known  name  of  Hugh  Broughton 
had  found  no  place  in  the  list.  In  his  resentment  at 
what  he  considered  a  personal  affront  Broughton  lost 
no  time  in  attacking  the  new  version  with  all  the 
petulance  of  wounded  vanity.  "  Tell  His  Majesty,"  he 
wrote,  "that  I  had  rather  be  rent  in  pieces  with  wild 
horses  than  any  such  translation,  by  my  consent,  should 
be  urged  on  poor  churches."  Having  thus  passed 
summary  sentence  on  the  work  of  the  Committee,  he 
turned  his  anger  on  Archbishop  Bancroft.  In  that 
pungent  and  would-be  witty  style  which  distinguished 
him,  Broughton  branded  the  Primate  as  the  arch- 
offender  among  the  whole  company  ;  and  not  obscurely 
intimated  that,  when  his  mortal  race  was  run,  this 
"  bane  of  the  banned  croft "(!)  would  be  found  else- 
where than  in  heaven.  The  world,  however,  passed 
on  its  way  undismayed  ;  Broughton's  consent  was  dis- 

♦  Page  250. 

273  o 


374  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

pensed    with;   and   the  "poor   churches"    faced    their 
biblical  ordeal. 

With  the  appearance  of  the  King's  Bible  it  was  only 
natural  that  there  should  come  a  pause  in  the  work 
which  had  been  inaugurated  by  Tyndale  in  the  pre- 
ceding century.  Scholarship  had  for  a  time  spoken  its 
last  word.  The  strife  of  parties  was  rapidly  being 
transferred  from  the  religious  to  the  political  arena 
and  the  Stuarts,  by  their  fatuous  attempt,  under 
changed  circumstances,  to  maintain  the  Tudor  des- 
potism without  the  Tudor  tactfulness,  were  hurrying 
England  along  a  path  that  could  lead  only  to  civil 
war.  But  though  it  is  not  in  the  ferment  of  the 
seventeenth  century  that  we  can  expect  to  find  any- 
thing like  a  continuous  history  of  the  English  Bible, 
still  even  at  this  period  its  annals  are  not  by  any  means 
a  blank. 

The  Authorised  Version,  let  us  remember,  had  to 
begin  by  making  its  reputation  against  two  keen  com- 
petitors. On  the  one  hand  there  was  the  Bishops' 
Bible,  of  which  it  was  the  revision,  but  which  was 
not  reprinted  after  1606 ;  and  on  the  other  hand 
there  was  the  Genevan  Bible,  the  Bible  of  home  life, 
which  was  by  far  the  more  formidable  rival  of  the 
two.  Before  a  new  translation  could  secure  popularity 
on  its  own  intrinsic  merits,  it  was  necessary  that  it 
should  first  win  its  way  into  circulation  by  attracting 
purchasers.  With  this  view  the  last  comer  among  the 
competing  versions  was  made  to  appropriate  and  adopt 
something  of  the  external  appearance  of  the  Bibles 
already   familiar   to   the  market.     The   figure,  for   ex- 


QUAINT  NAMES  OF  BIBLES  27$ 

ample,  of  Neptune  with  his  trident  and  horses,  was 
borrowed  from  the  Bishops'  Bible,  while  the  general 
ornamentation  of  the  title-page  was  borrowed  from  the 
Genevan  Bible.  Thus  attractively  equipped,  the  King's 
Bible  started  on  its  task  of  rivalry,  but  from  the  very 
first  it  was  hampered  by  the  deplorable  carelessness  of 
its  printers,  and  it  was  only  through  its  own  excellence 
that,  after  a  sharp  struggle,  it  came  out  so  completely 
victorious.  Even  the  two  earliest  issues,  namely,  those 
of  16 1 1,  proved  to  be  incorrect,  and  the  so-called  "he" 
and  "  she  "  Bibles  derive  their  name  from  the  fact  that, 
in  Ruth  iii.  15,  one  edition  reads,  "  and  ^e  went  into  the 
city,"  while  the  other  has  the  variant  "  s/ie."  Passing 
to  better-known  examples,  we  may  instance  such  un- 
fortunate reprints  as  the  "  Wicked"  Bible  of  King 
Charles'  day,  in  which  the  seventh  commandment 
stands  bereft  of  its  negative ;  a  slip,  by  the  way,  for 
which  Laud  inflicted  on  the  printers  a  fine  of  ;^300 ;  the 
**  Vinegar"  Bible  of  17 17,  where  the  heading  to  Luke, 
chap.  XX.,  is  given  as  "  the  parable  of  the  Vinegar  "  ;  the 
"  Standing  Fishes  "  Bible  ;  the  "  Murderers  "  Bible  ;  and 
the  "Ears  to  Ear"  Bible. 

The  King's  Bible  had  been  some  forty  years  in 
circulation  when,  in  1653,  the  Long  Parliament  brought 
in  a  bill  for  a  fresh  revision.  Various  considerations 
had  combined  to  induce  the  authorities  to  take  this 
step.  In  part  they  were  influenced  by  the  fact  that 
many  blunders  had  already  come  to  light  in  the  print- 
ing, and  that  the  new  edition  was  accused  in  certain 
quarters  both  of  numerous  mistranslations,  and  also 
of  ^'speaking    the  prelatical    language!'     The   proposal 


276  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

aroused  considerable  interest,  and  in  1657  a  sub- 
committee was  appointed  to  take  the  matter  practically 
in  hand.  Several  meetings  were  held  at  the  house  of 
Lord  Commissioner  Whitelocke,  the  holder  of  the  Great 
Seal,  but  the  dissolution  of  the  Parliament  put  an  end 
to  the  matter  before  the  committee  had  been  able  to 
report. 

Among  the  members  of  this  committee  were 
Cudworth,  the  philosopher  and  theologian ;  and  Bryan 
Walton,  who  was  made  Bishop  of  Chester  at  the 
Restoration.  Walton's  name  is  well  known  in  the 
history  of  biblical  criticism  as  having  been  the  editor 
of  a  sumptuous  Polyglot  Bible,  to  the  promotion  of 
which  Oliver  Cromwell  gave  his  cordial  support.  He 
was  also,  as  we  believe,  the  earliest  among  English 
scholars  to  call  attention  to  the  many  discrepancies, 
originating  in  the  oversights  and  blunders  of  copyists, 
which  occur  in  the  numerous  MSS.  of  the  Greek  Scrip- 
tures.* The  study  of  these  "  various  readings,"  as  they 
are  usually  called,  belongs  to  the  science  of  textual  criti- 
cism, and  it  is  the  development  of  this  branch  of  biblical 
study,  whether  through  the  discovery  of  fresh  manu- 
scripts, or  through  a]  more  searching  examination  of  the 
material  already  in  existence,  which  has  been  mainly 
instrumental  in  bringing  about  a  revision  of  the 
Authorised  Version. 

At  the  point  which  we  have  now  reached  it  may  be 

*  The  arrival  in  England  of  the  great  Alexandrine  Manuscript 
of  the  fifth  century,  which  is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  and  which 
was  a  present  to  Charles  I.  from  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
must  doubtless  have  given  a  great  impulse  to  textual  study. 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  THE  BIBLE         277 

well  to  endeavour  to  picture  to  ourselves  the  general 
idea  of  the  Bible  which  was  in  men's  minds  on  the 
eve  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  which  had  to  be 
dislodged  before  philologists  and  critics  could  get  a 
patient   hearing. 

The  Reformation  had  placed  in  the  hands  of  Protes- 
tants an  English  version  of  the  Scriptures,  based,  as 
regards  both  testaments  alike,  on  the  traditional  or 
"received"  text.  Having  accomplished  this  it  had 
stopped  short.  Calvin,  it  is  true,  had  made  himself 
responsible  for  the  doctrine  that  these  Scriptures 
"shone  by  their  own  light,"  and  in  this  belief  the 
Protestant  world  unhesitatingly  acquiesced.  To  every 
Puritan  his  Bible  was  the  immediate  utterance  of  God. 
The  modern  conception  of  the  sacred  volume  as  a 
collection  of  books,  the  majority  of  which  have  a  long 
literary  history  of  editing  and  re-editing  behind  them  ; 
the  idea  that  the  characters  and  circumstances  of  the 
inspired  penman  should  have  been  permitted  to  mingle 
with  and  to  colour  their  several  compositions ; — would 
have  been  all  but  universally  repudiated.  From  Genesis 
to  Revelation  the  Bible  was  accepted  as  the  miraculously 
preserved  record  of  an  inspiration  whose  operation 
extended  to  every  word,  and  even  to  every  letter, 
of  the  printed  page.  In  the  Hebrew  original  it  was 
spoken  of  accordingly  as  the  Hebrew  "  Verity,"  and  in 
the  Greek  as  the  Greek  "  Verity." 

In  a  sense,  therefore,  the  Protestant  had  but  ex- 
changed one  external  authority  for  another.  In  the 
place  of  the  medieval  Church  he  had  the  Scriptures ; 
in   the  place  of  an   infallible   institution   an   infallible 


278  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

document ;  in  the  place  of  a  tradition  a  printed  book. 
The  Puritan  iconoclast  had  himself  become  a  biblio- 
later ;  and  on  his  self-interpreting  book  he  now  leaned 
with  the  whole  weight  of  his  religious  nature. 

But  the  scheme  of  compulsory  godliness,  for  which 
Cromwell's  Independents  were  responsible,  had  broken 
down  in  practice,  and  Puritanism,  or  rather  its  cari- 
cature, was  being  laughed  out  of  court  by  Sir  Hudibras. 
The  world  that  surrounded  those  who  accepted  the 
theology  of  the  Reformers  was  passing  more  and  more 
under  the  sway  of  the  intellectual  influences  set  in  motion 
by  the  regeneration  of  scientific  method  through  the 
labours  of  Descartes,  Bacon,  and,  after  them,  of  Spinoza. 
For,  what  the  Renaissance  was  to  letters  and  to  art ; 
and  what  the  Reformation  was  to  religion ;  that  the 
abandonment  of  tradition  for  experience  was  to  the 
growth  of  science  and  to  the  development  of  knowledge. 
The  Great  Rebellion  had  its  true  counterpart  in  philo- 
sophy ;  and  the  revolt  of  the  individual  citizen  against 
the  divine  right  of  kings  found  its  analogue  in  the 
revolt  of  the  individual  reason  against  the  divine  right 
of  authority.  From  this  point  of  view,  the  foundation 
of  the  Royal  Society  in  1660,  which  may  be  said  to 
have  sprung  from  the  "  Novum  Organon  "  of  Bacon,  was 
an  event  of  no  less  significance,  in  its  own  field,  than 
was  the  Petition  of  Right  in  the  field  of  practical 
politics. 

Under  such  circumstances  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
spirit  which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  we  may  call  the 
spirit  of  Puritanism  (though  it  was  not  confined  to  the 
Puritans),   should   sooner   or   later  come   into  collision 


VERBAL  INSPIRATION  AND  THE  DEISTS      279 

with  the  spirit  of  criticism  and  science.  At  the  Re- 
formation there  had  been  a  moral  and  political  in- 
surrection against  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  eighteenth  century  was  to  see  an  insurrection 
against  the  authority  of  the  book  which  had  been  put 
in  its  place,  and  of  which,  in  the  first  days  of  a  printed 
text,  the  earliest  editions  were  held  in  almost  super- 
stitious veneration.  Viewed  under  one  of  its  aspects, 
Deism,  which  was  so  prominent  a  feature  of  the 
century  in  question,  was  a  reaction  against  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  creed  with  which  the  early  Reformers  rested 
satisfied.  Admitting  that  Revelation  had  been  recorded 
in  a  documentary  form,  what  information,  the  Deists 
asked,  could  history  and  research  give  about  the 
record  ?  And  what,  too,  had  philology  to  say  to  it  ?  The 
claims  of  the  document  should  at  least  be  presented  at 
the  bar  of  reason,  so  that  it  might  be  seen  whether  the 
historical  foundations  were  strong  enough  to  support 
the  theological  superstructure.  It  was  by  this  line  of 
attack  that  the  prevalent  rationalism  of  the  age  was 
brought  to  bear  on  the  Protestant  belief  in  the  abso- 
lute self-sufficiency  of  the  Bible,  and  that  it  served  to 
stimulate  in  various  quarters  the  philological  study  of 
literary  origins. 

We  can  now,  perhaps,  better  appreciate  the  con- 
sternation that  was  caused  in  orthodox  circles  by  the 
appearance  of  Bryan  Walton's  .Polyglot,  with  its  dis- 
quieting collection  of  "various  readings,"  which  the 
great  Puritan  Divine  of  his  day,  Dr  John  Owen,  made 
the  subject  of  his  attack.  To  the  Roman  and  to  the 
Deist   the   new   discovery   was    far    from    unwelcome. 


28o  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

For,  to  the  Roman,  these  variants  were  only  so  much 
additional  evidence  that  the  Protestant  book,  speaking 
with  a  voice  so  indistinct  and  so  uncertain,  was  in  no 
position  to  make  good  its  claim  to  independent  authority, 
but  required  the  Church  to  interpret  it  To  the  Deist, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  were  a  phenomenon  to  which 
he  could  triumphantly  point  as  to  something  hopelessly 
inconsistent  with  the  traditional  and  generally  accepted 
belief  in  verbal  inspiration.  How,  he  asked,  could  it 
any  longer  be  reasonably  maintained  that  the  record 
of  Revelation,  ever  since  the  days  of  the  original  auto- 
graphs, had  been  protected  by  Providence  from  the 
vicissitudes  to  which  the  history  and  tradition  of  other 
ancient  manuscripts  was  known  to  have  been  universally 
subject  ? 

Such  being  the  effect  produced,  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, by  the  publication  of  Walton's  critical  researches, 
it  was  not  very  long  before  matters  came  to  a  crisis. 
The  appearance  in  the  year  1707  of  a  new  folio  edition 
of  the  Greek  Testament,  by  Dr  John  Mill,  redoubled  the 
alarm  which  had  been  excited  by  the  Walton  Polyglot 
a  few  years  earlier.  Mill  had  been  at  work  upon 
this  edition  for  fully  thirty  years,  and  the  number  of 
various  readings  which  it  exhibited  mounted  up  to  a 
total  of  not  less  than  thirty  thousand.  The  rationalists 
rose  at  once  to  the  bait,  and  Anthony  Collins,  one  of 
the  deistical  writers  of  the  day,  was  not  slow  to  avail 
himself  of  what  seemed  to  be  so  favourable  an  oppor- 
tunity for  scoring  an  advantage  over  the  orthodox  party. 
In  his  "  Discourse  of  Free  Thinking"  he  accordingly 
made  marked  reference  to  this  parade  of  discrepancies 


BENTLEY  ON  TEXTUAL  CRITICISM  281 

in  the  manuscripts,  as  largely  fortifying  the  position 
which,  in  common  with  his  fellow  controversialists, 
he  himself  was  concerned  to  maintain.  With  no 
sufficient  title  of  his  own  to  fame,  Collins  would 
hardly  have  escaped  oblivion  had  he  not  succeeded  in 
bringing  upon  the  field  of  controversy  the  greatest  of 
English  scholars,  and  the  founder  amongst  us  of  that 
school  of  Hellenists  to  which  Dawes  and  Porson  sub- 
sequently belonged,  Richard  Bentley. 

In  his  reply  to  the  "  Discourse,"  Bentley  made  it  clear 
that  the  problem  which  was  involved  in  textual  criticism 
was  not  really  a  theological  but  a  literary  problem.  He 
showed  that,  if  the  variants  caused  by  the  mistakes  of 
scribes  and  copyists,  who,  after  all,  were  but  flesh  and 
blood,  were  analysed  as  well  as  counted,  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  them  would  be  seen  to  be  wholly  in- 
significant in  their  nature,  and  would  leave  the  sub- 
stantial correctness  of  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture 
practically  unaffected.*  Neither  faith  nor  morals  were 
in  any  danger,  nor  could  a  single  doctrine  or  precept  be 
proved  to  have  been  in  any  degree  jeopardised  or  in- 
validated. So  far,  indeed,  it  may  here  be  added,  is  a 
high  total  of  various  readings  from  forming  any  argu- 
ment against  the  substantial  purity  of  the  parent  text, 
that,  the  higher  grows  the  total  of  variants,  the  more 
MSS.  are  thereby  proved  to  have  been   collated,   and 

*  In  the  Introduction  to  the  Revised  Text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment by  Westcott  and  Hort  (1881),  it  is  estimated  that  "the 
amount  of  what  can  in  any  sense  be  called  substantial  variation 
can  hardly  form  more  than  a  thousandth  part  of  the  entire 
text."  This  would  mean  less  than  200  words  in  the  entire  New 
Testament. 


282  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

the   broader,  therefore,   the   inductive   basis   on   which 
the  general  integrity  of  the  record  stands  secured 

This  is  not  the  place  to  dwell  on  the  great  services 
which  Bentley  rendered  to  this  branch  of  philology,  or 
on  those  proposals  for  recovering  a  fourth  century 
text  of  the  New  Testament  which  have  added  an 
additional  lustre  to  his  fame,  though  unfortunately  he 
was  never  able  to  carry  them  out.  It  is  enough  for  our 
immediate  purpose  to  have  recalled  the  name  of  the 
illustrious  critic  who  did  so  much  to  pave  the  way  for 
his  successors  in  the  field  of  textual  research  as  applied 
to  the  Bible,  and  whose  judgment  on  the  merits  of  the 
contention  raised  by  the  *'  Discourse  "  has  been  already 
recorded  on  the  page  prefixed  to  the  present  chapter. 
Others  have  entered  into  his  labours ;  and  it  is  to 
Bengel,  Griesbach,  Lachmann,  Tregelles,  Tischendorf, 
Hort,  Scrivener,  and  the  late  Bishop  of  Durham, 
that  we  are  mainly  indebted  for  such  progress  as  has 
been  made  towards  a  purer  text  than  it  was  in  the 
power  of  Erasmus  and  Beza,  of  Stephens  and  the 
Elzevirs,  to  arrive  at. 

We  have  been  tempted  to  make  this  brief  excursion 
into  the  long-forgotten  controversies  of  an  age  "too 
proud  to  worship  and  too  wise  to  feel,"  in  order  that  we 
might  thereby  be  enabled  to  indicate  one  of  the  main 
lines,  namely,  the  line  of  textual  criticism,  along  which 
biblical  students  have  been  steadily  advancing  during 
the  long  years  that  lie  between  us  and  the  Reformation. 
Textual  criticism,  it  should  be  said  once  for  all,  is  an 
inductive  science  whose  business  it  is  to  compare  and 
weigh  the  evidence  of  ancient  manuscripts,  in  order  to 


MACE  AND  HARWOOD  283 

arrive   at    a    text    as    nearly   resembling   that   of   the 
vanished  autographs  as  may  be  possible. 

We  pass  on  now  to  a  second  department  of  biblical 
scholarship  ;  the  department,  namely,  of  translations. 

Next  in  importance  to  a  pure  text  is  a  good  transla- 
tion of  it.  Different  ages,  however,  have  had  different 
ideas  as  to  the  qualities  in  which  excellence  of  this  kind 
may  be  held  to  reside,  and  though  opinions  vary  as  to 
the  merits  of  our  latest  revision,  we  may  all  unite  in 
profound  thankfulness  that  our  English  Bible  has  not 
been  cast  in  any  of  the  degenerate  moulds  which  were 
at  times  designed  for  it  during  the  last  century. 
Numerous  attempts  were  then  made  to  improve  the 
Authorised  Version  by  modernising  it  in  a  variety  of 
ways  ;  but  whether  they  were  successful  or  otherwise  the 
reader  shall  now  have  an  opportunity  of  judging.  Two 
specimens  will  probably  be  amply  sufficient  to  satisfy 
any  curiosity  that  we  may  have  aroused,  and  we  will 
select  them  in  part  from  a  *^ New  Testament"  published 
by  Daniel  Mace  in  1729,  and  in  part  from  a  ^^  Literal 
Translation"  by  Dr  Harwood  of  Bristol  in  1768.  Let 
us  first  hear  Mace  : 

"When  ye  fast  don't  put  on  a  dismal  air  as  the  hypocrites  do" 
(Matt.  vi.  16). 

"  And  the  domestics  slapt  him  on  the  cheeks  "  (Mark  xiv.  65). 

*'  If  you  should  respectfully  say  to  the  suit  of  fine  clothes,  Sit 
you  there,  that's  for  quality  ..."  (James  ii.  3). 

"  The  tongue  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  body,  yet  how  grand  are 
its  pretentions  !  A  spark  of  fire  !  What  quantities  of  timber  will 
it  blow  into  a  flame"  (James  iii.  5,  6). 

This  is  bad,  indeed,  but  there  is  yet  worse  behind. 
Dr   Harwood   may   be   described   as   a   sort   of    Beau 


284  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

Brummel  among  translators,  and  he  works  on  an 
ambitious  plan.  It  is  his  aim,  he  explains,  "to  diffuse 
over  the  sacred  page  the  elegance  of  modern  English  "  ; 
and  with  this  aim  he  has  perpetrated  the  following 
version  of  part  of  the  "  Magnificat "  : 

"  My  soul  with  reverence  adores  my  Creator,  and  all  my  faculties 
with  transport  join  in  celebrating  the  goodness  of  God,  my  Saviour, 
who  hath  in  so  signal  a  manner  condescended  to  regard  my  poor 
and  humble  station." 

Now  that  he  has  once  yielded  to  the  fascination  of 
Harwood's  scriptural  style  the  reader  may  appreciate  a 
few  supplementary  gems.  They  shall  be  taken  from 
passages  which  we  may  assume  to  be  universally 
familiar. 

"A  gentleman  of  splendid  family  and  opulent  fortune  had  two 
sons." 

"  We  shall  not  all  pay  the  common  debt  of  nature,  but  we  shall 
by  a  soft  transition  be  changed  from  mortahty  to  immortality." 

"The  daughter  of  Herodias  ...  a  young  lady  who  danced 
with  inimitable  grace  and  elegance." 

The  late  Bishop  of  Exeter,  if  our  memory  serves 
us  rightly,  once  told  a  story  of  a  certain  sprightly  young 
deacon,  who,  in  preaching  against  the  advocates  of 
revision,  startled  his  hearers  by  the  contention  that  if 
the  Authorised  Version  was  good  enough  for  St  Paul  it 
was  good  enough  for  him.  If  that  deacon  still  lives  we 
should  like  to  present  him  with  a  copy  of  Dr  Harwood's 
"  Magnificat!' 

It  would  be  unjust  to  infer  that  all  the  attempts  of 
the  eighteenth  century  in  the  field  of  translation  were 
on  the  same  low  level,  but  at  the  same  time  it  would 


THE  RE  VISION  B  V  FIVE  CLERG  YMEN        285 

serve  no  good  purpose  to  transfer  any  additional 
examples  of  them  to  these  pages.  If,  however,  any  one 
should  wish  to  see  what  measure  of  success  can  be  attained 
in  combining  substantial  accuracy  with  the  charm  of  the 
old  familiar  diction,  we  would  invite  him  to  refer  to  a 
pioneer  volume,  entitled  a  "  Revision  of  the  Gospel  of  St 
fohn,  by  Five  Clergymen"  the  first  part  of  which  came 
out  in  March  1857.  The  five  contributors  were  Dr 
Barrow,  Dr  Moberly,  Dean  Alford,  Mr  Humphry,  and 
Dr  EUicott.  This  volume  was  quickly  followed  up 
by  a  revision  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  from  the  same 
able  hands,  and  in  1869  by  a  complete  revision  of 
the  New  Testament,  for  which  Dean  Alford  was  alone 
responsible. 

But,  although  no  authoritative  revision,  whether  of 
text  or  of  translation,  was  put  forward  before  the 
present  century,  individual  scholars  had  not  been  idle,  for 
private  study  is  never  seriously  or  permanently  affected 
by  the  shifting  course  of  political  or  religious  events. 
While  the  Rationalist  attacked  the  Puritan,  and  the 
Evangelical  the  Rationalist,  and  the  Tractarian  the 
Evangelical,  much  sound  work  was  being  done.  No 
small  part  of  such  work  was  the  bringing  together  and 
tabulation  of  critical  material ;  the  examination  of 
many  hundred  Hebrew  MSS.  by  Kennicott,  De  Rossi, 
Davidson,  and  others ;  and  the  publication  of  notes  and 
commentaries  on  difficult  passages.  It  is  one  thing,  of 
course,  to  submit  the  conjectural  emendations  of  an 
individual  student  to  the  judgment  of  contemporary 
scholars,  and  another  thing  to  provide  a  substitute  for 
the  Authorised  Version.     It  is  one  thing,  in  the  seclusion 


286  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

of  the  study,  to  clear  up  the  meaning  of  a  sacred  writer, 
and  another  thing  to  convey  that  meaning  to  the 
general  reader  in  terms  that  skilfully  conceal  from  him 
the  fact  that  he  is  being  presented  with  a  new  Bible. 
But  nevertheless  such  private  enterprise  is  of  real  and 
lasting  value.  Not  to  go  further  back  than  two  genera- 
tions, the  critical  labours  of  men  like  Lightfoot  and 
Alford ;  Conybeare  and  Howson ;  Jowett  and  Stanley ; 
Trench  and  the  various  contributors  to  the  Speaker's 
Commentary y  have  done  not  a  little  to  render  smoother 
the  path  of  the  translators  of  a  later  day. 

This  much,  then,  by  way  of  what  has  necessarily 
been  confined  to  a  rough  sketch  of  the  three  principal 
fields  in  which  the  pioneers  of  revision  had  been  more 
or  less  active  since  the  reign  of  James  I. ;  the  fields, 
namely,  of  textual  criticism,  of  translation,  and  of 
commentary. 

Before  we  pass  on  to  place  before  our  readers  the 
special  circumstances  under  which  revision,  so  long  in 
the  air,  took  a  practical  shape  among  us  thirty  years 
ago,  it  is  desirable  to  point  out  that,  in  minor  details, 
there  had  been  a  kind  of  unofficial  revision  going  on 
with  respect  to  the  Authorised  Version  for  many 
generations.  The  old  passion  for  explanatory  notes, 
for  example,  found  vent  in  an  edition  printed  in  1649, 
which  revived  the  glosses  of  the  Genevan  Bible. 
The  first  edition  to  incorporate  the  chronology  of  Arch- 
bishop Ussher,  and  to  fix  the  year  4004  B.C.  as  the  date 
of  the  Creation,  was  Bishop  Lloyd's  Bible  of  1701 
(London).  Again,  the  Cambridge  Bible  of  1762,  by 
Dr  Paris,  and  the  Oxford  Bible  of  1769,  by  Dr  Blayney, 


ANTICIPATORY  WORK  287 

made  very  considerable  changes.  The  chief  modifica- 
tions which  they  introduced  were  in  the  use  of  italics, 
in  punctuation,  in  the  number  of  marginal  references, 
and,  above  all,  in  the  number  of  marginal  notes,  of 
which  latter  Dr  Paris  added  383  and  Dr  Blayney  ^6, 
including  many  on  weights  and  measures,  and  on  coins. 

When  we  reflect  on  this  process  of  unnoticed  and 
irresponsible  revision,  and  also  on  the  conspicuous 
advance,  during  the  last  three  generations,  in  almost 
every  branch  of  knowledge  which  could  throw  light 
upon  questions  of  biblical  scholarship,  it  may  seem 
surprising  that  an  authoritative  revision  should  have 
been  delayed  so  late  as  1870.  The  interval  between 
161 1  and  1870  is  of  course  undeniably  long  if  we  take 
it  as  a  whole ;  but  directly  we  break  it  up  and  analyse 
it  the  matter  begins  to  assume  a  different  aspect. 

Let  us  bear  in  mind,  then,  that  to  the  troublous  years 
of  the  Commonwealth  there  succeeded  the  conserva- 
tive times  of  the  Restoration.  And  if  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century  was  largely  occupied  with  con- 
troversies such  as  that  between  Collins  and  Bentley,  in 
the  second  half  of  it  we  can  see  that  the  centre  of 
interest  had  shifted  from  religion  to  politics  and  econo- 
mics. The  great  names  that  meet  us,  for  example, 
after  those  of  Hume  and  Butler,  are  the  names  of 
Burke  and  Adam  Smith.  A  little  later  on  the  progres- 
sive spirit  again  received  a  sudden  check  through  the 
intellectual  reaction  which  followed  the  excesses  of  the 
French  Revolution.  Thus  it  was  not  until  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  well  on  its  way  that  England  began 
to  throw  off  her  religious  drowsiness,  and  that  biblical 


288  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

criticism  was  once  more  encouraged  to  raise  its  head. 
From  that  time  onward,  however,  there  has  been  no 
considerable  relapse,*  and  our  sluggish  insular  conscious- 
ness has  shown  increasing  symptoms  of  the  literary 
and  scientific  influences  which  found  their  way  from 
Germany  into  our  midst  through  the  philosophy  of 
Coleridge,  and  through  the  preaching  of  Carlyle. 

But  be  this  how  it  may,  there  is  no  question  that  a 
powerful  impulse  was  given  to  the  cause  of  revision  by 
the  appearance,  about  the  middle  of  the  present  century, 
of  the  critical  texts  of  the  New  Testament  published  by 
Tischendorf,  and  by  our  own  countryman,  Tregelles  ; 
and,  again,  by  the  startling  discovery  of  yet  another 
very  ancient  manuscript  of  the  entire  Scriptures.  This 
manuscript,  now  known  as  the  Codex  Sinaiticus,  is  a 
splendid  Uncial  of  the  fourth  century,  and  was  found 
in  the  monastery  of  St  Catherine,  on  Mount  Sinai. 
Forty-three  leaves  of  the  Old  Testament  were  rescued 
from  the  wastepaper  basket  by  the  keen  eyes  of  Tischen- 
dorf in  1844,  and  were  presented  by  him  to  King 
Frederick  of  Saxony,  who  deposited  them  in  the  Court 
Library  at  Leipzig.  But  the  monks  in  the  meantime 
had  taken  alarm,  and  it  was  not  until  1859  that  the 
steward  of  the  monastery  produced,  out  of  his  private 
room,  a  mass  of  loose  leaves  wrapped  in  a  cloth,  which 
turned  out  to  include  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  156  additional  pages  of  the  Old. 

The  Church  authorities   in  England  now  began  to 

*  In  1858  appeared  '"'•The  Authorised  Version  of  the  Bible  ^^ 
(Trench) ;  and  in  1876  "  On  a  Fresh  Revision  of  the  English  New 
Testament"  (Lightfoot). 


REVISION  COMMITTEE  289 

bestir  themselves  in  sober  earnest ;  and,  shortly  after 
the  publication  of  Dean  Alford's  New  Testament,  the 
then  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Samuel  Wilberforce,  sounded 
the  Prime  Minister,  Mr  Gladstone,  as  to  the  appointment 
of  a  Royal  Commission,  with  a  view  to  a  complete 
revision  of  the  Authorised  Version.  The  political  diffi- 
culties to  be  surmounted  were,  however,  found  to  be 
too  great,  and  accordingly  in  February  1870  Bishop 
Wilberforce  brought  the  subject  under  the  notice  of  the 
Convocation  of  Canterbury.  A  Committee  of  both 
houses  of  the  Southern  Province  was  consequently 
formed,  and  directed  to  make  a  report,  which  they 
did  in  the  following  May.  The  Convocation  of  York 
was  of  opinion  that  the  proposed  revision  was  still 
premature,  and  accordingly  the  Northern  Province  con- 
tinued to  stand  aloof 

The  report  of  the  joint  Committee  having  been 
adopted,  it  was  next  resolved  that  two  companies  should 
be  formed,  each  consisting  of  twenty-seven  members, 
the  one  to  undertake  the  revision  in  respect  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  the  other  in  respect  of  the  New.  It  was 
decided  also  that  the  invitations  to  the  leading  scholars  of 
the  United  Kingdom  should  include  Nonconformists  as 
well  as  members  of  the  Established  Church.  Further- 
more, the  Convocation  sought  to  obtain  the  co-operation 
of  the  churches  of  America,  and  in  due  course  two 
companies,  corresponding  to  those  in  England,  were 
organised  across  the  water,  and  both  sets  of  revisers 
remained  in  close  touch  with  each  other  throughout  the 
course  of  their  labours. 

The  resolution  passed  by  the  Convocation  of  Canter- 

T 


290  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

bury,  in  February  1870,  limited  the  forthcoming  altera- 
tions, whether  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  texts,  or  in  the 
translation  of  them,  to  ''passages  where  plain  and  clear 
errors  should,  on  due  investigation,  be  found  to  exist" 
The  Committee  also  agreed  to  the  following  rules 
among  others  : 

(i)  As  few  alterations  to  be  made  in  the  text  as 
should  be  found  consistent  with  faithfulness. 

(2)  The  expression  of  such  alterations  to  be  con- 
fined, as  far  as  possible,  to  the  language  of  the 
Authorised  and  earlier  English  Versions. 

(3)  The  text  adopted  to  be  that  for  which  the 
evidence  decidedly  preponderated,  and  all  alterations  of 
the  traditional  text  to  be  indicated  in  the  margin. 

(This  last  rule,  however,  it  was  found  impossible  to 
carry  out,  for  reasons  explained  by  the  revisers  in  their 
Preface.) 

(4)  Each  Company  to  go  over  their  work  twice. 
The  decision  in  the  first,  or  provisional,  revision  to  be 
by  simple  majorities;  and  in  the  final  revision  by  a 
majority  of  not  less  than  two-thirds  of  those  present. 

Since  a  good  deal  of  stress  has  been  laid  on  this 
rule  of  a  two-thirds  majority,  as  practically  safe-guarding 
the  text  from  ill-considered  changes,  we  shall  venture 
a  few  words  on  the  subject.  It  may  be  questioned 
whether  the  rule  is  quite  so  sound  as  it  looks.  It 
would  undoubtedly  be  so  if  there  were  as  many  good 
textual  critics  present,  at  any  given  sitting,  as  there 
were  good  scholars.  But  any  one  who  has  served  on 
committees  is  aware  of  the  predominating  influence  ol 
the  expert,  and  we  are  all  familiar  with  the  maxim. 


A  MINIMUM  OF  ALTERATION  PRESCRIBED    291 

"  Cuique  in  sud  arte  credendum."  Take  such  a  case, 
for  example,  as  that  of  a  library  committee,  debating 
as  to  the  purchase  of  some  special  and  technical  book 
which  may  recently  have  been  published.  It  is  very 
possible  that  the  final  vote  of  the  committee  will  be 
unanimous,  but  the  decision  will  really  have  rested  all 
the  while  with  its  expert  members.  Those  who  are 
conscious  of  knowing  less  will  gladly  have  been  guided 
by  those  who  are  admitted  to  know  more.  Whether 
this  was  so  among  the  revisers  we  cannot  say.  But 
that  it  may  have  been  so  is  far  from  unlikely. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Prefaces  to  the  Revised  Versions  are 
readily  accessible  to  all,  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  go  into 
further  detail  as  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  Convocation 
and  by  its  committee.  Substantially  they  come  to  this, 
that  the  revisers  were  not  to  alter  the  Authorised 
Version  more  than  was  really  essential  in  order  to  bring 
it  into  harmony  with  admitted  facts.  A  few  incidental 
points  of  general  interest  may,  however,  be  briefly 
touched  upon.  The  expenses  of  the  undertaking  were 
duly  provided  for  in  the  sale  of  the  copyright  to  the 
Universities.  The  marginal  references  of  the  Authorised 
Version  temporarily  disappeared ;  but  they  were  sub- 
jected to  a  careful  examination,  and  a  new  edition  of 
the  Revised  Version  has  quite  recently  been  published 
both  in  England  and  in  America  in  which  these 
references,  duly  revised,  again  form  a  conspicuous  feature. 
The  Old  Testament  Company  spent  fourteen  years,  and 
the  New  Testament  Company  ten  years,  over  their  work, 
the  former  having  held  nearly  800  sittings,  and  the 
latter  nearly  400.     Two  editions  of  the  Greek  Testa- 


292  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

ment  have  been  published  by  the  Universities  in  order 
to  show  what  changes  have  been  adopted  in  the  text 
The  Oxford  edition  places  the  changes  in  the  body 
of  the  text,  and  the  discarded  readings  in  the  foot- 
notes ;  while  in  the  Cambridge  edition  this  process  is 
reversed. 

If  we  now  proceed  to  compare  the  position  occupied 
by  the  revisers  of  1870,  sitting  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber 
at  Westminster,  with  that  of  their  predecessors  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  contrast  will  be  found  interest- 
ing and  instructive. 

The  committee  appointed  by  King  James  were 
instructed  to  work  on  the  text  of  a  Bible  which  was 
not  yet  forty  years  old,  namely,  the  Bishops'  Version 
of  1568. 

Our  revisers,  on  the  other  hand,  were  called  upon  to 
work  on  a  text  which  had  been  current  for  a  period 
actually  longer  than  the  entire  interval  which  divides 
Wyclifife  from  the  first  of  the  Stuarts. 

Again,  while  the  Bishops'  Bible  had  never  been  a 
success,  the  Authorised  Version  had  for  more  than  two 
centuries  been  almost  a  household  word. 

To  complete  the  contrast,  the  Bishops'  Bible  had 
circulated  side  by  side  with  its  rivals,  and  among  a 
comparatively  small  public,  of  whom  the  majority  were 
unable  to  read.  King  James'  Bible  had  circulated, 
supreme  and  peerless,  among  an  educated  public  dis- 
persed all  over  the  English-speaking  world.  As  years 
went  by  it  had  taken  deeper  and  wider  root  in  English 
literature.  Week  by  week  it  had  been  preached  and 
read  aloud  in  the  ears  of  millions  and  tens  of  millions. 


GRAVE  DIFFICULTIES  OF  REVISION  293 

The  Prayer  Book,  by  adopting  its  renderings,  had 
re-echoed  it  in  the  Gospels,  Epistles,  and  occasional 
services  of  our  Liturgy.  Private  study  and  private 
devotion  had  for  generations  known  no  other  Bible. 
From  the  English  press  more  than  three  million  copies 
had  long  been  pouring  out  year  after  year.  Since  its 
foundation  in  1804  the  British  and  Foreign  Society 
has  up  to  the  present  time  distributed  an  aggregate 
(of  complete  Bibles  and  of  portions)  which  mounts 
up  to  the  astonishing  total  of  close  upon  seventy 
millions. 

In  the  face  of  such  facts  as  these  it  is  sufficiently 
apparent  that  a  reviser  of  yesterday  finds  himself  con- 
fronted with  a  task  far  graver  than  that  which  lay 
before  the  reviser  of  three  centuries  ago.  The  responsi- 
bility and  difficulty  of  retouching  so  unique  a  master- 
piece, of  drawing  the  line  between  essentials  and  non- 
essentials, and  of  making  corresponding  changes  in  a 
book  which  has  long  since  taken  a  whole  people  captive 
by  its  beauty,  can  hardly  be  exaggerated. 

Whatever,  therefore,  may  be  the  ultimate  verdict  of 
a  later  generation  upon  labours  which  are  even  now 
too  recent  to  be  fairly  judged,  the  barest  honesty  makes 
it  only  fitting  that  these  difficulties  and  these  responsi- 
bilities should,  in  the  meantime,  be  freely  and  frankly 
recognised. 

The  work  entrusted  to  the  revisers  of  1870  falls 
into  two  natural  divisions,  namely,  the  revision  of  the 
text  from  which  the  Bible  of  161 1  had  been  translated, 
and  the  revision  of  the  translation  itself  It  is  plain, 
that,  before  there   can   be   an   agreement   as   to  what 


294  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

English  words  best  represent  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
texts,  there  must  be  a  prior  agreement  as  to  what  those 
Hebrew  and  Greek  texts  themselves  are.  But  at  this 
point  a  difficulty  at  once  arises.  A  critical  knowledge 
of  manuscripts  is  one  thing,  and  a  gift  for  translation  is 
another  thing.  It  is  probably  an  understatement  of  the 
case  to  say  that,  where  twenty  scholars  could  be  named 
capable  of  giving  us  a  trustworthy  translation,  it  would 
be  hard  to  name  two  out  of  the  number  who  would 
also  be  capable  of  giving  us  a  trustworthy  text. 
Textual  criticism  is  a  science  which  can  hardly  be 
mastered  in  less  than  a  lifetime,  and  the  number  of 
those  in  England  who,  in  1870,  had  more  or  less 
exhausted  all  that  it  had  to  teach  might  be  counted 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand. 

The  conditions  of  the  problem,  let  us  add,  were  not 
by  any  means  the  same  for  the  Old  Testament  as  for 
the  New.  In  the  case  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
revisers  had  practically  no  choice  left  to  them. 
Adequate  materials  for  revising,  with  any  confidence, 
the  traditional,  or  Massoretic,  text  are  not  yet  in 
existence.  This  can  only  be  done  by  the  help  of  the 
ancient  Versions,  and  the  text  of  these  Versions  them- 
selves leaves  very  much  to  be  desired.  Although  no 
Hebrew  manuscripts  have  survived  that  are  of  earlier 
date  than  the  ninth  century,  still  this  traditional  text 
can  be  traced  back  as  far  as  the  first  century.  That  it 
has  been  preserved  with  the  most  scrupulous  care  since 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  is  not,  we  believe,  open 
to  serious  question.  But  before  that  time,  from  the 
eighth    century    B.C.     onwards,    the     history    of    the 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  TEXT  295 

consonantal  text,  which  in  the  early  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era  was  vocalised  by  the  Rabbis  for 
reading  aloud  in  the  Synagogue,  is  involved  in  much 
obscurity.  It  appears  certain,  however,  that  the  MSS. 
which  were  before  the  translators  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  into  the  Greek  Septuagint,  for  the  use  of  the 
Greek-speaking  Jews  of  Alexandria  in  the  third  century 
B.C.,  were  not  in  anything  like  complete  agreement  with 
the  MSS.  from  which  the  Scribes  of  the  first  century 
A.D.  made  their  selection  out  of  the  Temple  archives 
with  the  view  of  permanently  fixing  a  standard  text. 
"  The  age  and  authorship  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,"  writes  Professor  Driver,  "can  be  deter- 
mined (so  far  as  this  is  possible)  only  upon  the  basis 
of  the  internal  evidence  supplied  by  the  books  them- 
selves ;  no  external  evidence  worthy  of  credit  exists."  * 
"The  state  of  knowledge  on  the  subject,"  say  the 
revisers  in  the  Preface  to  their  Revision,  "is  not  at 
present  such  as  to  justify  any  attempt  at  an  entire 
reconstruction  of  the  text,  on  the  authority  of  the 
Versions."  This  being  so,  and  there  being  no  other 
authority  available,  but  one  course  was  left  to  them. 
With  here  and  there  a  few  exceptions,  they  were 
compelled  to  adopt  the  Massoretic  text. 

But  the  conditions  in  respect  of  the  New  Testament 
are  altogether  different.  In  spite  of  the  imposing  total 
to  which  variants  of  greater  or  less  importance  have 
mounted  up,  the  substantial  integrity  of  the  text  is  here 
supported   by  a  mass  of  evidence  which  is  absolutely 

♦  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament :  Second 
Edition,  p.  xxxv. 


296  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

overwhelming,*  and  of  this  evidence  the  greater  portion 
has  been  brought  into  existence  since  the  date  of  the 
Authorised  Version.  No  Greek  or  Roman  classic  can 
boast  of  anything  at  all  approaching  so  secure  a  literary 
foundation  as  the  Bible,  and  the  same  remark  applies 
with  even  greater  emphasis  to  the  text  of  Shakespeare, 
which  is  full  of  doubts  and  difficulties.  But  there  is  at 
least  one  feature  that  is  common  to  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  alike,  and  that  is,  that  in  both  cases  the 
original  autographs  have  long  since  vanished.  For  those 
who  do  not  believe  in  any  providential  government  of  the 
world  this  loss  will  have  no  more  significance  than  would 
be  admitted  in  the  case  of  any  other  like  literary  mishap. 
It  is  otherwise,  however,  for  those  who  do  so  believe. 
To  speculate  upon  what  Providence  might  have  done 
is  doubtless  a  mere  waste  of  time,  but  it  is  instructive 
to  reflect  upon  the  facts  of  history.  If  the  survival  of 
the  ?^ctual  words  of  the  sacred  writers  had  been  essential 
to  the  cause  of  religion,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
they  would  have  survived.  If  they  have  been  permitted 
to  perish,  it  would  seem  that  what  is  really  essential 

*  The  MSS.  of  the  New  Testament,  including  Uncials  and 
Cursives,  number  about  two  thousand.  The  most  valuable  Uncials 
are  : — 

(i)  The  Codex  Sinaiticus,  4th  century,  in  the  Library  of  St 
Petersburg. 

(2)  The  Codex  Vaticanus,  4th  century,  in  the  Vatican  Library. 

(3)  The  Codex  Alexandrinus,  5th  century,  in  the  British  Museum. 

(4)  The   Pahmpsest  of  Ephraem   Syrus,  5th   century,  in  the 

Biblioth^que  Nationale,  Paris. 

(5)  Codex  Bezse,  6th  century,  at  Cambridge. 
The  most  important  Versions  are  : — 

(i)  The  Latin.  (2)  The  Syriac.  (3)  The  Egyptian. 


TASK  OF  TEXTUAL  CRITICISM  297 

is  not  the  earthen  vessel,  but  the  treasure  that  it  con- 
tained ;  not  the  form,  but  the  matter  ;  not  the  letter,  but 
the  spirit  and  the  substance.  Textual  critics  have  still 
much  work  before  them.  The  collation  of  all  important 
manuscripts  has  to  be  completed  ;  the  Versions  have  to 
be  critically  edited,  and  their  languages  to  become  the 
common  property  of  scholars  ;  the  works  of  the  Fathers 
need  both  correctly  printing  and  adequately  indexing ; 
the  evidence  of  the  Lectionaries  has  still  to  be  exhausted, 
and  the  Synoptical  problem  yet  awaits  solution.  And 
even  then  the  most,  we  presume,  that  research  can  hope 
to  do,  is  to  get  back  to  within  something  like  a  distance 
of  two  or  three  generations  from  the  originals,  either 
through  a  harmony  between  the  Old  Latin  and  the  Old 
Syriac  Versions,  which  are  some  two  centuries  older 
than  the  most  ancient  of  our  uncial  manuscripts,  or  by 
some  other  means.  But,  assuming  that  this  desirable 
stage  of  progress  may  eventually  be  reached,  all  variants 
will  not  even  then  have  been  eliminated,  seeing  that  as 
soon  as  the  original  manuscripts  began  to  be  copied,  a 
variety  in  the  readings,  whether  conscious  or  unconscious, 
unintentional  or  deliberate,  began  to  occur.  And  in 
addition  to  this  there  is  the  admitted  fact  that  critics 
are  not  yet  agreed  as  to  whether  our  Gospels  in  their 
present  shape  can,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  be 
said  to  have  had  autograph  originals  at  all,  or  whether, 
again,  there  was  not  more  than  one  genuine  edition  of  the 
book  of  "  Acts  "  during  the  lifetime  of  its  author.  These 
being  the  general  circumstances  of  the  case,  the  course 
which  our  revisers  thought  it  wisest  to  adopt  was  prac- 
tically to  pin  their  faith  to  a  provisional  and  tentative 


298  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

text  which  had  been  supplied  to  them  in  advance.  This 
text,  as  is  well  known,  was  the  outcome  of  the  labours 
of  two  of  the  highest  authorities  of  the  day,  namely,  the 
late  Dr  Hort  and  the  late  Bishop  of  Durham,  though 
it  had  not  secured  the  unreserved  support  of  a  fellow- 
student  of  equal  or  even  of  higher  critical  attainments, 
Dr  Scrivener. 

For  the  casual  layman  to  pose  as  a  competent  judge 
of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  this  text  would  be  trans- 
parently ridiculous.  It  is  necessary,  however,  to  refer  to 
its  existence  because  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
opposition  with  which  the  RevisedjNew  Testament  has 
been  met  is  due  to  the  official  endorsement  of  the  text 
in  question  by  the  revisers,  in  their  collective  capacity, 
without  any  previous  and  experimental  circulation  of  it 
for  general  criticism.  To  a  mind  which  has  no  prejudices 
on  the  subject,  either  in  one  direction  or  in  another,  it 
seems  clear  that  in  thus  accepting  a  text  which  introduces 
some  six  thousand  new  readings,  and  which  certainly 
therefore  cannot  be  accused  of  erring  on  the  side  of 
timidity,  the  Committee  would  appear  to  have  lost  sight 
of  the  instructions  given  to  them  by  Convocation,  viz., 
"  to  introduce  as  few  alterations  as  possible "  into  the 
text  of  the  Authorised  Version.  And  not  only  so,  but 
they  can  hardly  have  taken  into  sufficient  account  the 
fact  that  their  Revision  was  intended  to  take  the  place 
of  the  Authorised  Version  as  the  people's  Bible,  and 
was  not  intended  merely  for  scholars  who  had  the 
means  of  judging  more  or  less  for  themselves,  and  who 
at  any  rate  were  cognisant  of  the  general  nature  of  the 
problems  underlying   the   Revision.     Under  such  con- 


THE  REVISION  AS  A  PEOPLES  BIBLE        299 

ditions  they  would  perhaps  better  have  served  their 
purpose  if,  in  all  cases  where  the  traditional  reading 
could  give  a  respectable  account  of  itself,  though 
some  reasonable  doubt  existed,  they  had  offered  to 
the  innate  conservatism  of  the  English  temperament 
in  respect  of  the  Authorised  Version  the  temporary 
benefit  of  that  doubt,  and  had,  accordingly,  made  not 
the  maxhnum  but  the  minimum  of  change.  Every 
one,  for  example,  would  have  been  glad  of  the  dis- 
appearance from  I  John  v.  of  the  spurious  text  about 
the  three  witnesses ;  or  of  such  improvements  as  the 
substitution  in  Rev.*  xxii.  14  of  "they  that  wash  their 
robes"  for  "they  that  do  His  commandments  " ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  of  certain  violent  changes  in  the 
first  three  Gospels,  the  necessity  for  which  is  not  beyond 
dispute,  it  is  not  every  one  who  will  be  glad. 

Closely  connected  with  the  subject  of  the  text  is  the 
subject  of  the  margin.  And  here  again  it  is  desirable 
to  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  not  dealing  with  a  book 
written  by  scholars  for  scholars,  but  with  the  English 
Bible  revised  for  the  use  of  all  English-speaking  people. 
From  this  homely  point  of  view  it  is  impossible  to  praise 
the  practice  which  has  been  adopted  of  bewildering 
ordinary  folk  by  leaving  them  to  infer  that  they  are  at 
liberty  to  make  their  choice  between  two  or  three  or 
four  "ancient  authorities," — authorities  about  which 
they  know  just  nothing  whatever.  Frankness  and 
conscientiousness  are  very  admirable  qualities,  and  if  a 
reading  is  in  fact  uncertain,  no  one  would  contend  that 
readers  should  be  presented  with  a  suggestio  falsi,  or 
that  the  text  should  be  vouched  for  as  if  it  were  certain. 


300  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

But  what  should  we  think,  if,  when  we  consulted  our 
experts — our  lawyer,  let  us  say,  or  our  doctor — the 
one  were  to  leave  us  staring  at  a  variety  of  prescriptions, 
each  of  which,  as  he  informed  us,  had  at  some  time  been 
known  to  heal  some  one  somewhere  of  his  sickness ;  or 
if  the  other,  in  his  anxiety  to  brace  us  with  his  profes- 
sional advice,  were  to  add,  as  an  audible  aside,  that 
many  ancient  solicitors  held  quite  a  different  opinion, 
and  that  he  was  not  prepared  to  contradict  them  ? 

Mere  literary  laymen,  and  still  more,  the  unlettered 
men  and  women  who,  for  various  reasons,  are  in  the 
habit  of  reading  what  they  can  understand,  and  feel 
thankful  for,  and  enjoy,  in  their  Bibles,  desire  to  look 
up  to  their  reviser  as  to  an  expert.  Such  persons  do 
not,  of  course,  expect  infallibility.  That  is  a  gift  which, 
as  we  are  all  by  this  time  aware,  is  not  to  be  found 
outside  the  Vatican.  But  they  do  wish  to  know  what 
those  who  have  thoroughly  studied  the  matter  think 
to  be  most  probable,  and  with  this  they  are  prepared  to 
rest  content.  To  throw  three  or  four  different  readings 
at  their  heads,  and  to  bid  them  go  away  and  choose 
for  themselves,  is  to  cause  them  unnecessary  irrita- 
tion, and  where  they  asked  for  bread  to  give  them  a 
stone. 

We  pass  now  from  the  text  which  forms  the  basis 
of  the  Revised  Version,  and  from  the  unsuitability,  for 
the  purposes  of  a  popular  Bible,  of  a  margin  one 
function  of  which  seems  to  be  to  register  the  con- 
jectures of  critics,  briefly  to  notice  and  illustrate  the 
several  classes  of  defects,  other  than  wrong  readings, 
which  were  admitted  on  all  hands  to  exist  whether 


DEFECTS  IN  THE  AUTHORISED  VERSION    301 

in  the  Old  or  in  the  New  Testament  of  the  Bible  of 
1611. 

As  our  readers  are  aware,  it  is  no  part  of  the  plan 
of  this  book  to  go  into  any  detail  on  points  of  criticism, 
but  we  may  make  a  rough  classification  of  these  defects 
under  the  following  heads,  which  we  will  take  in 
sequence. 

1.  Mis-translations. 

2.  Ambiguous,  inexact,  or  inadequate,  renderings. 

3.  The  use  of  terms  now  become  obsolete. 

4.  Obscurities  of  phrase. 

5.  Gratuitously  inconsistent  renderings  of  the  same 
Greek  word  to  the  detriment  of  the  force  and  meaning 
of  the  original. 

6.  Renderings  which  are  offensive  to  modern  taste, 
and  which,  whether  in  the  family  circle  or  elsewhere, 
are  a  practical  hindrance  to  the  reading  of  certain 
portions  of  the  Bible  aloud.  On  these,  however,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  dwell  further. 

(i)  Mis-translations. 

As  an  example  of  wrong  translation  we  may 
instance  the  First  Lesson  appointed  to  be  read  on 
Christmas  day,  which  is  taken  from  Isaiah,  chap.  ix. 
The  prophet,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  contrasting  the 
future  of  those  who  walk  according  to  the  law  with 
the  future  of  those  who  despise  it,  and  who  "shall 
look  unto  the  earth,  and  behold  distress  and  dark- 
ness, the  gloom  of  anguish."  Nevertheless,  he  pro- 
ceeds : — 


302 


THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 


Authorised  Version. 

1.  Nevertheless  the  dimness 
shall  not  be  such  as  was  in  her 
vexation,  when  at  the  first  he 
lightly  afflicted  the  land  of 
Zebulon  and  the  land  of 
Naphtali,  and  afterward  did 
more  grievously  afflict  her  by 
the  way  of  the  sea,  beyond 
Jordan,  in  Galilee  of  the 
nations. 

2.  The  people  that  walked  in 
darkness  have  seen  a  great 
light:  they  that  dwell  in  the 
land  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
upon  them  hath  the  light 
shined. 

3.  Thou  hast  multiplied  the 
nation  and  not  increased  the 
joy :  they  joy  before  thee 
according  to  the  joy  of  harvest, 
and  as  men  rejoice  when  they 
divide  the  spoil. 

4.  For  thou  hast  broken  the 
yoke  of  his  burden,  and  the 
staff  of  his  shoulder,  the  rod 
of  his  oppressor,  as  in  the  day 
of  Midian. 

5.  For  every  battle  of  the 
warrior  is  with  confused  noise, 
and  garments  rolled  in  blood ; 
but  this  shall  be  with  burning 
and  fuel  of  fire. 


Revised  Version. 

But  there  shall  be  no  gloom 
to  her  that  was  in  anguish. 
In  the  former  time  he  brought 
into  contempt  the  land  of 
Zebulon  and  the  land  of 
Naphtali,  but  in  the  latter 
time  hath  he  made  it  glorious, 
by  the  way  of  the  sea,  beyond 
Jordan,  Galilee  of  the  nations. 
The  people  that  walked  in 
darkness  have  seen  a  great 
light :  they  that  dwelt  in  the 
land  of  the  shadow  of  death 
upon  them  hath  the  light 
shined. 

Thou  hast  multiplied  the 
nation,  thou  hast  increased 
their  joy  :  they  joy  before  thee 
according  to  the  joy  in  harvest, 
as  men  rejoice  when  they 
divide  the  spoil.  For  the  yoke 
of  his  burden,  and  the  staff  of 
his  shoulder,  the  rod  of  his 
oppressor,  thou  hast  broken  as 
in  the  day  of  Midian.  For  all 
the  annour  of  the  armed  man 
in  the  tumult,  and  the  garments 
rolled  in  blood  shall  even  be 
for  burning,  for  fuel  of  fire. 


"  Before  your  pots  can  feel 
the  thorns,  he  shall  take  them 
away  as  with  a  whirlwind,  both 
living,  and  in  his  wrath." — 
Psalm  Iviii.  9. 


"Before  your  pots  can  feel 
the  thorns  he  shall  take  them 
away  with  a  whirlwind,  the 
green  and  the  burning  alike." 


COMPARISON  OF  RENDERINGS  303 

Authorised  Version.  Revised  Version. 

"And  other    sheep    I   have,  "And    other  sheep    I    have, 

which   are    not    of   this    fold :  which    are    not    of   this    fold : 

them  also   I   must  bring,  and  them  also   I   must   bring,  and 

they  shall  hear  my  voice,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice  ;  and 

there  shall  be  one  fold  and  one  they  shall  become  one  flock,  one 

shepherd." — John  x.  16.  shepherd." 

"Then    Paul    stood    in    the  "And    Paul    stood    in    the 

midst  of  Mars'  hill,  and  said,  midst  of  the  Areopagus,  and 
Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  said.  Ye  men  of  Athens  in  all 
that  in  all  things  ye  are  too  things  I  perceive  that  ye  are 
superstitious." — Acts  xvii.  22.  somewhat  superstitious"  (mar- 

gin, or,  religious). 

With  regard  to  the  last  quotation  the  revisers  do 
not  appear  to  have  much  improved  upon  their 
predecessors.  We  always  supposed  the  point  to  be 
that  the  earlier  translators  had,  unnecessarily,  caused 
St  Paul,  among  whose  characteristics  were  his  courtesy 
and  his  delicacy  of  feeling,  to  begin  an  important 
address, — and  an  address,  moreover,  delivered  to  an 
audience,  not  deficient  in  self-esteem, — with  a  breach  of 
good  manners ;  so  that  the  better  sense  would  perhaps 
be  neither  "  too  superstitious,"  nor  yet  "  somewhat 
superstitious,"  but  "  more  than  ordinarily  devout."  * 

*  The  term  in  the  original  Greek  means  "  fearing  the  gods." 
Xenophon  frequently  uses  it,  in  the  good  sense,  as  equivalent  to 
"religious,"  and  it  is  found,  too,  several  times  so  used  in 
Josephus. 


304 


THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 


(2)  Ambiguous,  inexact,  or  inadequate 
renderings — 


Authorised  Version. 

"Make  to  yourselves  friends 
of  the  mammon  of  unrighteous- 
ness."— Luke  xvi.  9. 

"And  Jesus  himself  began 
to  be  about  thirty  years  of 
age." — Luke  iii.  23. 

"And  when  they  had  taken 
up  the  anchors  they  committed 
themselves  unto  the  sea,  and 
loosed  the  rudder  bands." — 
Acts  xxvii.  40. 

"  He  hardened  Pharaoh's 
heart." — Exod.  vii.  13. 

"  I  know  nothing  by  myself." 
— Cor.  iv.  4. 


Revised  Version. 

"Make  to  yourselves  friends 
by  means  of  the  mammon  of 
unrighteousness." 

"  And  Jesus  himself,  when  he 
began  to  teach^  was  about  thirty 
years  of  age." 

"  And  casting  off  the  anchors, 
they  left  them  in  the  sea,  at  the 
same  time  loosing  the  bands  of 
the  rudders." 


"Pharaoh's   heart   was    har- 
dened." 

"  I     know    nothing    against 
myself." 


(3)  The  use  of  terms  now  become  obsolete. 

Under  this  head  come  such  words  as  "  habergeon," 
"  wimples,"  "  artillery  "  [i.e.  arrows),  "  knops,"  "  ouches," 
"taches,"  "bosses,"  "ambassage,"  " boiled,"^ " lewd "  {i.e. 
unlearned),  "  worship "  {i.e.  honour),  and  many  others. 
The  foregoing  will,  however,  suffice  as  illustrations,  and 
it  is  easy  for  any  one  to  fill  up  the  list  for  himself 


(4)  Obscurities  of  phrase. 

In    this    class     may    properly    be     included    such 
Hebraisms  as  "«  covenant  of  salt"  (a  friendly  agree- 


OBSOLETE  OR  OBSCURE  PHRASES  305 

ment),  " cleanness  of  teeth^''  (a  famine),  ^^ branch  and 
rush  "  (highest  and  lowest),  "  rising  early  "  (acting  with 
energy) ;  or  such  Latinisms  as  ^^ prevent "  (go  in  front 
in  order  to  assist),  "rtTrt/ww^/Zt?/?"  (judgment),  "/«^/zVd:«" 
(tax-gatherer),  '^ creature^^  (any  created  thing,  whether 
animate  or  not). 

(5)  Gratuitously  inconsistent  renderings 
of  the  same  greek  word. 

In  this  class  of  defective  renderings  we  come  face  to 
face  with  a  deliberate  conflict  of  principle.  The  trans- 
lators of  1611  admonish  the  reader  in  their  Preface 
that  "  we  have  not  tyed  ourselves  to  an  uniformity 
of  phrasing,  or  to  an  identity  of  words."  But  a  too 
rigid  uniformity  is  one  thing  and  a  capricious  love  of 
variety  is  another,  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why 
when  the  same  Greek  term  is  repeated  in  the  original  it 
should  not,  as  a  rule,  be  repeated  in  the  translation  ;  why, 
for  example,  that  which  is  a  "  letter"  in  Acts xxiii.,  xxv., 
should  become  an  "  epistle  "  eight  verses  later,  or  why 
what  is  the  good  old  Saxon  "truth"  in  i  Tim.  ii.  7, 
should  become  the  Latin  "  verity "  later  on  in  the  self- 
same verse.  It  is  needless  to  say  more  under  this  head, 
for  the  improvements  introduced  by  the  revisers  pervade 
their  whole  work  and  meet  us  at  every  turn. 

Such,  then,  we  believe  to  be  fairly  representative 
instances  of  the  imperfections  which  experience  had 
long  since  brought  to  light  in  the  Authorised  Version, 
and  we  ought  to  add  to  them  certain  grammatical 
inaccuracies  in  the  rendering  of  the  Greek  article,  tenses, 

U 


3o6  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

cases,  particles,  prepositions,  and  the  like,  which  are  too 
general  to  need  illustration. 

These  flaws  were  mainly  due  to  two  unavoidable 
disadvantages  which  attached  to  the  revision  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  first  of  these  disadvantages 
was  that  King  James's  scholars  learnt  their  Greek 
through  grammars  and  lexicons  which  expressed  them- 
selves not  in  English  but  in  Latin.  They  were  accus- 
tomed, in  other  words,  to  a  language  which  lacks  the 
richness  and  the  inflexions  of  the  Greek,  and  which 
can  boast  of  neither  a  definite  article  nor  an  aorist. 
Their  second  disadvantage  was  that  the  Greek  with 
which  they  were  most  familiar  was  classical  and  not 
Hellenistic  Greek.  There  is,  we  need  hardly  say,  all 
the  difference  in  the  world  between  the  Greek  of 
Sophocles  and  Plato,  and  the  Greek  of  the  New 
Testament,  or  of  the  Septuagint.  The  one  is  a  native 
growth ;  the  natural  speech  of  the  wonderful  people  who 
brought  their  language  to  such  perfection.  The  other  is 
that "  common  dialect "  of  everyday  life,  which  was  in  use, 
with  many  local  varieties,  throughout  the  kingdoms  which 
sprang  up  out  of  Alexander's  conquests  ;  a  dialect  which 
ministered  to  the  literary  needs  of  the  many-coloured 
civilisation  for  whose  external  history  the  Roman 
Empire  had  prepared  the  framework.  Greek  it  is,  but 
a  degenerate  Greek,  standing  midway  between  the 
Greek  of  the  LXX.  and  the  Greek  of  the  early  Fathers ; 
and  largely  moulded  by  the  Hebrew  genius  on  the  one 
side,  and  by  Christian  ideas  and  thoughts  on  the  other. 
The  only  fragment  of  the  New  Testament  which  can  be 
said  to  recall  the  Greek  of  the  classical  age  is  the  brief 


PURER  ENGLISH  OF  AUTHORISED  VERSION    307 

introduction  to  the  third  Gospel  which  has  been  given  us 
by  St  Luke.  The  Jew  of  the  first  century  thought  in 
Hebrew  though  he  wrote  in  Greek  ;  and  the  whole  cast 
of  his  mind  was  as  different  from  that  of  a  Greek  of 
the  days  of  Pericles  as  Asia  Minor  and  Palestine  were 
themselves  different  from  Greece.  If  due  weight  be 
given  to  this  twofold  drawback  under  which  the  trans- 
lators of  161 1  were  forced  by  circumstances  to  work, 
it  will  not  excite  any  surprise  that  their  successors  of 
1870  should  have  felt  it  no  unimportant  part  of  their 
duty  to  bring  the  grammar  of  the  new  version  more 
into  harmony  with  the  lights  and  shades  of  their 
Hellenistic  original  than  would  have  been  possible  two 
or  three  centuries  ago. 

No  one,  we  imagine,  will  quarrel  with  them  for 
thus  endeavouring  to  strengthen  what  was  one  of  the 
weakest  points  in  the  armour  of  their  predecessors.  And 
in  order  to  judge  what  measure  of  success  they  have 
obtained,  the  fairest  way  is  to  read  several  chapters  con- 
secutively, side  by  side  both  with  the  Authorised  Version 
and  with  the  Greek.  Tried  by  this  test  the  impression 
left  upon  our  own  mind  is  that  our  revisers  have 
attempted  far  too  much.  It  may  readily  be  admitted  that 
they  know  Greek,  and  more  especially  Hellenistic  Greek, 
better  than  it  was  known  by  King  James's  Committee ; 
but  that  Committee  were  most  assuredly  their  masters  in 
Scriptural  English,  and  were  very  jealous  withal  of  the 
native  idiom. 

Our  old  English  Bible  has  come  down  to  us  redolent, 
as  it  were,  of  the  springtime  of  our  language.  Our  new 
one  has  hanging  about  it  a  suspicion  of  the  midnight 


3o8  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

lamp.  Why  should  it  not  be  enough  if  a  translation 
can  be  made  to  convey  the  meaning  of  the  original 
framed  in  the  idiomatic  manner  and  usage  of  the 
translator's  own  tongue  ?  Neither  Chapman's  " Homer" 
nor  Frere's  "  A  ristophanes"  nor  Worsley's  "  Odyssey  I' 
nor  Jowett's  '^ Plato"  are  literal  translations,  but  they 
recall  their  originals  much  more  vividly  than  if  they 
were.  Why  force  English  into  a  mechanical  imita- 
tion of  Greek  instead  of  leaving  it  in  all  the 
attractiveness  of  its  native  colouring?  We  shall  be 
slow  to  believe  that  either  this  or  any  future 
Revision  will  take  the  place  of  the  Authorised 
Version,  as  the  popular  and  home  Bible,  so  long 
as  it  concentrates  so  much  of  its  strength  in  the 
aim  at  what  strikes  us  as  an  over-refined  accuracy, 
and  forgets  that  one  great  secret  of  the  success  of 
its  forerunner  was  the  music  of  its  cadences  and  the 
magic  of  its  literary  charm. 

It  was  intended  not  for  scholars  only,  but  for  every 
one  who  could  read,  and  it  was  intended,  moreover,  to 
bear  reading  aloud.  It  may  have  failed,  it  doubtless 
has  failed,  in  exactly  reproducing  the  niceties  of  Greek 
grammar  and  syntax,  but  for  all  that  it  won,  and  it 
has  maintained,  a  permanent  place  in  England's  heart 
as  the  greatest  of  her  classics.  And  are  we  really  the 
losers  by  its  lesser  grammatical  blemishes?  The 
Founder  of  our  religion  left  no  writings  behind  Him, 
and  even  His  reported  sayings  have  come  to  us  not 
in  their  original  Aramaic  but  in  Greek.  But,  passing 
downwards  from  Jesus  Christ,  is  there  any  indication  in 
either  the  prophets,  or  the  evangelists,  or  the  apostles, 


GRAMMATICAL  PURISM  MA  Y  BE  OVERDONE    309 

that  they  attached  a  vital  importance,  not  merely  to  the 
turn  of  their  every  phrase,  but  to  every  mood,  and  to 
every  tense,  and  to  every  particle  ?  It  is  not,  surely,  the 
impression  which  is  given  us  by  St  Paul,  whose  amanu- 
ensis must  often  have  been  sore  put  to  it  to  keep  pace 
with  the  surging  torrent  of  the  Apostle's  eloquence 
when  under  the  stress  of  strong  emotion.  Nor  is  it 
what  we  gather  from  the  story  of  Jeremiah's  roll  of 
prophecies,  which,  after  some  twenty  or  thirty  years  from 
their  delivery,  he  had  committed  to  writing,  and  which 
King  Jehoiakim  in  his  anger  cut  up  into  shreds  and 
burnt.  For  so  far  was  the  prophet  from  regarding  the 
loss  as  irreparable,  or  the  precise  wording  of  his  message 
from  having  any  mystical  value  attaching  to  it,  that  he 
dictated  a  fresh  version  to  Baruch,  his  scribe,  or  private 
secretary,  and  added  to  his  new  edition  "many  like 
words." 

It  must  be  freely  admitted  that  the  exact  degree 
of  faithfulness  which  best  befits  a  translation  of  the 
Bible  is  a  subject  on  which  there  is  much  to  be  said, 
and  to  be  said,  moreover,  from  more  than  one  point 
of  view.  Our  revisers,  therefore,  are  at  least  as  fully 
entitled  to  their  own  convictions  on  the  matter  as  are 
the  less  erudite  readers  of  their  version.  For  our 
own  part,  however,  we  cannot  help  wishing  that  they 
had  adhered  more  conscientiously  to  the  unambiguous 
instructions  of  Convocation  as  to  the  avoidance  of  all 
"  unnecessary  "  changes. 

For  there  seems  to  be  a  very  widespread  feeling 
abroad  that  many  changes  have  been  made  by  them 
which    were    not    really    necessary    at    all.      Let    us 


3IO         '  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

justify  this  feeling  by  a  few  out  of  a  whole  multitude  of 
available  examples.  Was  it  necessary  in  Gen.  ii.  2 
to  read  '*  finished  "  for  "  ended  "  ;  or  "  rule  "  for  "  reign  " 
in  Judges  ix.  2  ;  or  "  unto  "  for  "  to  "  ;  or  "  Isaiah  the 
prophet,"  for  "  the  prophet  Esaias " ;  or  "  He  findeth 
first,"  for  "  He  first  findeth  "  ;  or  to  make  the  war-horse 
in  the  Book  of  Job  snort  "Aha"  instead  of  "  Ha  ha," 
Job  xxxix.  25?  For  what  reason  is  "thrown  down" 
better  than  "  cast  down  "  in  Luke  iv.  29 ;  or  "  fastening 
their  eyes,"  than  "  looking  steadfastly "  in  Acts  vi.  15; 
or  ''the  lust,"  ''the  sin,"  than  "lust,"  "sin,"  in  James 
i.  15;  or  "  love  "  than  "  charity  "  in  the  famous  passage  in 
St  Paul? 

But  it  is  easy  enough  for  any  one  to  make  extracts 
to  suit  his  own  arguments  and  his  own  views.  The 
fairer  way,  as  was  before  remarked,  is  to  read  out  loud 
some  considerable  portion  of  the  Revision  as  a  continuous 
whole,  and  to  compare  it  carefully  with  the  Authorised 
Version,  bearing  always  in  mind  the  rule  laid  down 
by  Convocation  that  nothing  was  to  be  altered  un- 
necessarily. If  the  result  of  this  experiment  be  to  satisfy 
the  reader  that  the  rule  has  been  conscientiously  observed 
we  shall  be  much  surprised. 

Thus  much  we  have  ventured  to  say,  respecting  the 
claim  of  the  Revised  Version  to  take  the  place  of  King 
James's  Edition  as  a  Bible  for  the  people.  But  our 
remarks  have  little  or  no  application  to  it  as  a  new 
critical  work  for  a  certain  class  of  readers.  As  a  com- 
panion Bible  to  the  one  to  which  we  are  accustomed ; — 
as  a  scholar's  Bible ; — as  a  helpful  book  of  reference, — 
it  deserves,  as  it  seems  to  us,  almost  all  the  praise  that 


GREAT  DEBT  DUE  TO  THE  REVISERS         311 

can  be  given  to  it.  To  what  extent  the  new  readings 
in  the  text  will  be  recognised  as  good  and  sound  fifty 
years  hence,  we  have  not  the  technical  knowledge  on 
which  to  base  a  judgment.  But  it  requires  no  technical 
knowledge  to  appreciate  so  long-deferred  a  boon,  to  take 
the  first  modification  which  occurs  to  us,  as  the  division 
of  the  text  into  paragraphs.  For  the  old  division  into 
chapters  and  verses,*  however  useful  the  one  may  be  for 
liturgical  purposes,  or  the  other  as  a  way  of  notching  the 
printed  matter  so  as  to  square  with  this  or  that  concor- 
dance, often  involves  a  grave  interference  with  the  logical 
order  of  the  original.  A  great  improvement,  too,  is  the 
distinguishing  of  poetry  from  prose,  and  of  quotations 
from  the  actual  words  of  the  sacred  writers.  An  addi- 
tional benefit  is  the  newly  devised  symmetry  which 
groups  together,  for  example,  the  six  "  woes  "  in  Isaiah 
v.,  and  the  seven  epistles  in  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
chaps,  ii.-iii.  Further,  a  large  debt  of  gratitude  is 
due  to  the  revisers  for  many  mis-translations  corrected  ; 
for  faulty  or  obscure  renderings  made  fuller  or  clearer ; 
for  capricious  inconsistencies  replaced  by  a  uniformity 
which,  especially  in  St  Paul's  Epistles,  is  of  great 
assistance  in  following  the  argument  or  the  thought ; 
for  obsolete  terms  and  phrases  superseded  by  terms  and 
phrases  that  can  be  understood.  From  all  these  points 
of  view  the  value  of  the  work  done  will  best  be 
appreciated  by  those  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  test  it 
as  a  whole ;  to  compare,  for  example,  the  Book  of  Job, 
or   of  Isaiah,   or   of   Ecclesiastes,   or  the   Apocryphal 

*  See  note  p.  218. 


312  THE  WORK  OF  REVISION 

books,  or  St  Paul's  Epistles,  in  our  Old  Version  and 
in  our  New. 

Our  readers,  however,  will  now  be  getting  anxious 
that  these  concluding  remarks  should  not  be  incon- 
siderately prolonged,  and  their  anxiety  is  entitled  to 
be  set  at  rest.  We  will  add,  therefore,  but  a  few  words 
more. 

Perhaps  the  "Authorised"  will  always  remain  the 
popular  Bible.  In  any  event  we  do  not  anticipate  that 
its  place  will  ever  be  filled  by  the  "  Revised."  And  if, 
in  conclusion,  we  may  make  bold  to  formulate  a  wish 
for  the  success  of  any  future  Committee  of  Revisers,  it 
shall  be  the  wish  that  no  microbe  of  the  Morbus  Gram- 
maticus  shall  ever  infect  them  ;  nor  any  epidemic  of 
literary  fidgets  harass  and  disquiet  them  ;  and,  lastly, 
that  they  shall  never  be  persuaded  to  devote  so  dis- 
proportionate an  amount  of  their  sympathies  to  our 
scholarship  as  to  leave  little  or  nothing  over  for  our 
literary  sensibilities.  Many  of  us  have  long  since  for- 
gotten the  details  of  our  grammars.  Still  more  of  us 
never  knew  them.  But  there  are  few  indeed,  whether 
high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  educated  or  uneducated,  who 
have  not  at  some  time  or  another  come  under  the 
religious  and  literary  spell  of  the  grand  old  English 
Bible  of  the  Reformation.  It  may  be  that  the  sensi- 
bility, whose  cause  we  plead  above,  should  be  counted 
as  but  a  pitiable  weakness,  and  that  a  reviser  should 
look  mainly  to  his  Lexicon  and  his  Grammar.  But, 
seeing  how  pardonable  a  weakness  it  is,  we  submit  this 
brief  sketch  to  our  readers  in  the  pious  hope  that,  when 
next  the  Jerusalem  Chamber  is  tenanted  by  a  fresh 


CONCLUSION 


313 


body  of  revisers,  they  may  never  be  haunted — as  we 
half  fear  their  forerunners  may  have  been  haunted — by 
the  ghost  of  the  man  who  regretted  with  his  last  breath 
that  he  had  not  consecrated  his  whole  life  to  the  study 
of  the  dative  case. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX   A 

THE  VULGATE  OF  JEROME 

By  the  term  Vulgate  is  meant  "  the  current  edition  for 
the  time  being."  It  is  the  Latin  equivalent  for  the 
name  given  by  the  Greek  Fathers  to  the  Septuagint 
Version.  The  earliest  Latin  Vulgate  was  what  is 
known  as  the  "Old  Latin"  translation  of  the  Bible, 
made  in  the  second  century.  As  now  used,  the  word 
denotes  Jerome's  revision  of  this  primitive  Latin  version 
with  regard  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
together  with  his  original  Latin  translation  of  the 
Hebrew  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Jerome's  work 
was  therefore  a  revision  of  the  pre-existent  Latin 
version  of  the  New  Testament  coupled  with  his  own 
version  of  the  Old  Testament  directly  from  the 
Hebrew. 

The  Vulgate  in  the  above  sense,  namely,  Jerome's 
revision,  is  the  Bible  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
as  pronounced  "  authentic  "  at  the  Council  of  Trent. 

The  following  is,  in  outline,  the  history  of  this 
composite  work. 

Between  the  middle  and  end  of  the  second  century 
the  entire  Bible  was   translated  by  unknown  persons 

31T 


3i8  THE  VULGATE  OF  JEROME 

into  Latin  for  the  benefit  not  of  the  Roman  Church, 
which  in  the  first  two  centuries  was  more  Greek  than 
Latin,  but  partly  in  order  to  make  the  Scriptures 
intelligible  to  the  Latin-speaking  Church  of  North 
Africa,  and  partly  for  the  benefit  of  the  Churches  of 
Spain,  Gaul,  and  Italy.  The  Latin  translation  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  from  the  Septuagint,  The  New 
Testament,  on  the  other  hand,  was  translated  from 
the  original  Greek. 

This  earliest  Latin  translation,  which  is  the  Western 
counterpart  of  the  "  Peshito,"  or  Syriac  version  of  the 
East,  goes  by  the  name  of  the  "  Old  Latin,"  in  contrast 
with  Jerome's  later  Latin  work,  and  it  had  at  least 
two  forms  or  types.  The  one  was  a  translation  in  a 
rough  dialect  of  a  provincial  cast,  and  this  type 
circulated  in  North  Africa.  The  other  was  in  a  more 
refined  dialect,  and  circulated  in  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Italy. 
In  the  form  known  as  the  "  Italic,"  the  translation 
may  have  been  made  by  the  Italian  bishops  for 
home  use. 

The  basis  of  the  "Old  Latin"  was,  as  has  been 
already  said,  in  the  Old  Testament  the  Alexandrine 
edition  of  the  Septuagint  —  including  the  Apocryphal 
books  which  were  excluded  from  the  Hebrew  Canon — 
and  in  the  New  Testament  such  Greek  manuscripts  as 
were  accessible  to  the  anonymous  translators.  These 
Old  Latin  versions  passed  in  their  various  forms  of 
dialect  from  hand  to  hand,  but  not  as  one  complete 
volume.  More  usually  they  circulated  in  portions,  as, 
for  example,  a  roll  of  the  Prophets,  of  the  Psalter,  or 
of  some  one  among  the  Epistles  of  St  Paul. 


ROMAN  AND  GALLICAN  PSALTERS  319 

By  the  fourth  century  the  text  of  this  Old  Latin 
version,  whether  in  its  African  or  in  its  European  form, 
had  become  exceedingly  corrupt,  and  especially  so  in 
those  books  which  were  in  most  constant  demand, 
namely,  the  Gospels.  Such  corruption  of  a  text  is 
obviously  unavoidable  when  copies  can  only  be  multi- 
plied by  hand,  and  when,  to  say  the  least,  every  copy 
is  thus  at  the  mercy  of  those  constantly  recurring 
mistakes,  whether  of  eye  or  of  ear,  to  which  even  the 
most  careful  scribe  is  liable.  A  further  source  of 
error  was  the  assumption  by  copyists  of  the  functions 
of  editors,  and  their  consequent  endeavours  to  improve 
the  text  which  they  were  copying  instead  of  rigidly 
following  it. 

Under  these  circumstances  Jerome  was  invited  by 
Pope  Damasus,  in  or  about  the  year  382  A.D.,  to  make 
a  revision  of  the  "  current  edition." 

Jerome  began  his  work  with  the  Italian  type  of 
the  Old  Latin  version  of  the  New  Testament.  He 
revised  the  Gospels  with  great  care,  bringing  to  his 
assistance  the  best  Greek  MSS.  that  he  could  find,  but 
making  only  such  alterations  as  seemed  to  him  to  be 
absolutely  necessary.  Of  the  rest  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment books  he  made  a  more  hurried  revision.  These 
books  remained,  therefore,  in  an  inferior  condition  as 
compared  with  the  Gospels.  He  next  turned  to  that 
book  of  the  Old  Testament  which  has  always  enjoyed 
the  widest  popularity,  namely,  the  Psalms.  His  first 
revision  was  made  by  collating  the  Old  Latin  with 
the  Septuagint.  This  revision  became  known  as  the 
"Roman  Psalter."     His  next  revision  was  made  with 


320  THE  VULGATE  OF  JEROME 

the  aid  not  only  of  the  Septuagint  but  also  of  the 
Hexapla  of  Origen.  This  re-revision  was  called  the 
"  Galilean  Psalter,"  and  it  is  this  version  which  is 
printed  in  all  Roman  Catholic  Bibles. 

In  or  about  the  year  387  Jerome  began  his  greatest 
work,  the  translation  from  the  Original  Hebrew  of  the 
entire  Old  Testament,  and  he  finished  it  in  405.  For 
the  reason  above  given,  viz.,  that  the  Hebrew  Canon 
excludes  it,  this  translation  did  not  include  the 
Apocrypha. 

Thus  the  Vulgate,  as  we  know  it,  is  far  from  being 
a  homogeneous  work.     It  contains  : — 

(i)  The  Old  Latin  altogether  unrevised  (Apocrypha), 

(2)  The  Old  Latin  cursorily  revised  (Acts  to  Revela- 
tion). 

(3)  The  Old  Latin  carefully  revised  (The  Gospels), 

(4)  The  Old  Testament  rendered  directly  from  the 
original  Hebrew. 

It  is  worth  observing  that  our  Prayer  Book  comprises 
two  relicts  of  renderings  from  this  venerable  Old  Latin, 
namely : — 

{a)  The  " Benedicite,"  or  "Song  of  the  Three 
Children,"  which  is  an  apocryphal  addition  to  Daniel 
iii.  23. 

{U)  The  Psalter,  which  is  Coverdale's  revised  trans- 
lation of  Jerome's  Galilean  Psalter. 

Jerome's  Vulgate,  it  may  be  added,  was  in  circulation 
in  England,  side  by  side  with  the  Old  Latin,  until  at 
least  as  late  as  the  ninth  century. 


APPENDIX   B. 

wycliffe's  doctrine  of  "dominion"* 

As  there  is  nothing  more  characteristic  of  Wycliffe 
than  his  doctrine  of  divine  and  civil  dominion,  and 
nothing  which  more  embittered  his  ecclesiastical 
opponents,  some  readers  may  be  interested  in  a  brief 
sketch  of  a  theory  which  lies  outside  the  subject  of 
this  book. 

It  is  necessary  at  the  outset  to  lay  stress  on  three 
points.  First,  that  although  Wycliffe  remained  in  name 
a  Catholic  to  the  end — there  being  as  yet  no  recognised 
religious  standing  outside  the  Latin  Church — yet  there 
was  always  in  him  a  strong  admixture  of  the  Predesti- 
narian  and  of  the  spirit  of  the  modern  Quaker.  Secondly, 
that  in  propounding  his  doctrine  he  does  not  even 
pretend  to  be  making  any  contribution  to  practical 
politics.  And  lastly,  that  while  the  doctrine  logically 
applies  just  as  much  to  secular  barons  as  to  monks  and 
bishops,  still,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Wycliffe's  eyes  remain 
fixed  almost  exclusively  upon  the  hierarchy. 

Looking   round,   then,   on   the   world  in  which    he 

*  This  doctrine  embraces  the  author's  views  on  the  relations 
of  man  to  God,  and  of  the  temporal  to  the  spiritual  power.  It 
includes,  moreover,  Wycliffe's  theory  of  ecclesiastical  endowments. 

321  X 


322       WYCLIFFE'S  DOCTRINE  OF  '"DOMINION" 

lived,  Wyclifife  saw  certain  established  powers  in 
authority.  The  temporal  sphere  was  governed  by  the 
Emperor,  the  local  Kings,  and  the  barons.  The 
ecclesiastical  sphere  was  controlled  by  the  Pope,  the 
Papal  legates,  and  the  hierarchy. 

Now  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  very  largely 
taken  up  with  the  inter-collision  of  these  parallel  but 
jealous  powers.  The  Empire  wrestles  with  the  Papacy, 
the  Papacy  with  the  local  Kings,  the  monks  and  bishops 
with  the  barons.  This  rivalry  for  supremacy  between 
the  temporal  and  spiritual  powers  gave  rise  to  a 
question  which  seems  fairly  to  have  haunted  the 
medieval  mind,  viz.,"  Who  was  the  greatest?''  With 
whom  was  it  that  sovereignty,  or  dominion,  could 
rightly  be  said  to  rest?  In  the  scale  of  nature 
who  came  first,  the  Emperor,  the  local  King,  or  the 
Pope?  Which  held  the  highest  rank,  the  spiritual 
order  or  the  temporal  order,  the  Church  or  the 
State  ? 

It  is  to  this  question  that  Wycliffe  was  in  part 
addressing  himself,  but  in  framing  his  solution  he 
makes  room  in  it  for  a  justification,  by  the  aid  of 
Scripture,  of  his  instinctive  antagonism  to  the  aggres- 
sions of  Rome  and  to  the  exercise  of  extra-spiritual 
powers  by  an  endowed  clergy. 

Wyclifife's  conception  of  "  dominion,"  as  of  something 
feudal  in  form  and  Christian  in  spirit,  was  borrowed, 
like  the  term  itself,  from  his  predecessor  at  Oxford, 
Richard  Fitzralph,  Chancellor  of  the  University  in  1333, 
and  subsequently  Archbishop  of  Armagh.  As  defined 
by    Fitzralph,    dominion   is   "lordship   conditioned   by 


DOMINION  IS  CONFINED  TO  GOD  323 

service."*  But  in  Wycliffe's  ecclesiastical  laboratory  so 
many  other  ingredients  are  fused  up  with  the  borrowed 
matter  that  it  emerges  from  the  crucible  with  an 
inherent  freshness  and  originality  of  its  own.  Among 
these  ingredients  must  be  included  the  author's 
Augustinian  sense  of  sin  and  of  grace,  the  Franciscan 
ideal  of  "evangelical  poverty,"  and  a  strong  personal 
conviction  that  the  note  of  a  true  Church  is  the 
" Imitatio  Christi"  simplicity  of  life,  and  the  persuasive 
power  of  pastoral  earnestness. 

The  method  by  which  Wycliffe  proceeds  is  to  select 
a  convenient  text  here,  and  a  convenient  text  there, 
taken  in  an  isolated  way  and  in  a  literal  sense.  This 
scriptural  material  thus  prepared  is  then  stretched  upon 
the  rack  of  the  Aristotelian  logic,  and  tortured  into 
compliance  with  the  requirements  of  a  theory  whose 
practical  validity  was  probably  never  in  any  doubt  in 
its  author's  mind. 

The  theory  itself  may  be  abridged  as  follows  : — 
Dominion,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  belongs 
not  to  man,  but  to  God,  Who  is  the  Lord  Paramount. 
God  has  made  no  special  or  privileged  delegation  of  it 
either  to  Emperors,  or  to  Popes,  or  to  Kings,  or  to  any 
human  authority  whatever.  But  he  has  made  and 
does  make  offer  of  it,  on  certain  conditions,  to  all  His 
servants  alike,  whether  lay  or  clerical.  An  Emperor 
and  a  King  are  as  truly  vicars  of  their  heavenly 
Sovereign  in  things  temporal  as  the  Pope  is  His  vicar 
in  things  spiritual.  The  condition  on  which  the  offer 
is,  in  every  case,  dependent,  is  a  due  reciprocity  of 
*  De  Pauperie  Salvatoris.     1354  (?) 


324       WYCLIFFE'S  DOCTRINE  OF  ''DOMINION" 

service.  Charity,  or  Love,  "  seeketh  not  her  own." 
The  truest  greatness,  then,  the  highest  human  dominion, 
whether  for  Churches  or  States  or  individuals,  is  to 
love  and  serve  God  and  man  faithfully.  Each  man's 
"  dominion "  is  a  kind  of  distinct  spiritual  fief  And 
between  a  feudal  fief  and  a  spiritual  fief  there  is 
one  all-important  difference.  In  the  latter  there  are 
no  intermediary  over-lords.  In  the  ideal  world  of 
spirit  and  conscience  man  holds  directly  from  God. 
God  and  man  are  there  face  to  face. 

But  man  is  a  fallen  being.  Were  he  sinless  he  would 
be  enabled,  by  a  perfect  life  of  moral  obedience,  to 
satisfy  the  strict  covenant  of  his  holding.  But,  as 
things  are,  he  cannot  of  himself  do  this.  Hence 
dominion  is  not  to  be  claimed  by  him  as  a  matter  of 
right.  All  dominion,  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual,  is 
founded  on  grace.  That  man,  in  Wycliffe's  view,  and 
that  man  only,  has  true  dominion,  who,  by  God's  grace 
working  in  him,  is  enabled  to  live  according  to  His 
law. 

Like  the  sage  of  the  Stoics,  Wycliffe's  saint,  or 
perfectly  righteous  man,  is  obviously  an  imaginary  and 
ideal  character.  For  him  all  things  work  together  for 
good.  In  his  poverty  he  is  rich,  and  having  nothing  he 
yet  possesses  all  things.  In  this  world  he  may  have 
tribulation,  but  in  the  world  of  the  spirit,  in  the  sight 
of  God,  however  naked  he  may  be  of  earthly  advantages, 
he  has  dominion,  he  is  a  king. 

The  ordinary  man,  on  the  other  hand,  can  only  have 
a  kind  of  bastard  dominion,  inasmuch  as  unrepented 
sin  must  be  held  to  forfeit  dominion. 


THE  IDEAL  AND  THE  REAL  325 

In  the  kingdom  of  grace,  since  each  man  has  all, 
it  follows  necessarily  that  all  things  must  be  held  in 
common. 

Outside  this  kingdom  of  grace  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  real  dominion,  for  it  is  only  by  a  sort  of  moral 
fiction  that  a  man  can  be  said  to  possess  that  of  which 
he  does  not  make  a  proper  use.  Still,  material  posses- 
sion is  a  practical  matter  of  fact,  and  Wycliffe  accord- 
ingly marks  it  off  by  the  distinguishing  name  of  power. 
With  respect  to  this  spurious  dominion,  or  power. 
Church  and  State  are  co-ordinate  authorities.  Each 
within  its  own  sphere  is  supreme,  but  the  authority  of 
the  former,  which  includes  laity  as  well  as  clergy,  is 
purely  spiritual,  while  that  of  the  latter  is  coercive. 
At  this  point  of  his  theory  Wycliffe  is  at  much  pains 
to  guard  himself  against  misapprehension.  Though 
power  is  not  dominion,  yet  it  is  de  facto  in  possession, 
and  its  claims  must  on  no  account  be  disregarded  on 
the  ground  that,  ideally,  its  title  is  defective.  The 
existing  social  order  is  what  it  is  by  the  sanction  of 
God,  while  force  and  violence  can  boast  of  no  such 
sanction.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  all  legal  proprietors, 
good  and  bad  alike,  ought  in  this  world  to  have  their 
possessory  title  upheld.  To  constituted  authority  there 
must  be  dutiful  submission ;  the  ideal  must  bow  to 
the  real ;  or,  in  Wycliffe's  extravagant  phrase,  "  God 
must  obey  the  devil."  But  if  the  clerical  portion  of 
the  Church  neglect  their  spiritual  duties,  or  trespass 
upon  the  province  of  the  temporal  ruler,  the  lay  portion 
— for  Wycliffe  is  a  strong  defender  of  the  priesthood  of 
the  laity — should  use  the  strong  arm  of  the  State  to 


326      WYCLIFFE'S  DOCTRINE  OF  ''DOMINION" 

reform  and  to  disendow  them,  as  having  culpably 
abused  their  trust. 

Whatever  may  have  been  said  or  done  by  this  or 
that  individual  among  the  medley  of  political,  religious, 
and  social  malcontents  who  for  years  continued  to  drift 
into  the  central  current  of  Lollardy,  no  student  of 
Wyclifife  will  lay  it  to  his  charge  either  that  he  deliber- 
ately closed  his  eyes  to  the  practical  side  of  things,  or 
that  he  himself  felt  any  personal  sympathy  with  anarchy. 

Indeed,  on  divesting  Wycliffe's  doctrine  of  the  feudal 
technicalities  in  which  he  has  clothed  it,  we  find  nothing 
either  alarming  or  unfamiliar  about  it. 

The  principle  that  all  property  has  duties  attaching 
to  it,  as  well  as  rights,  has  not  a  very  revolutionary 
ring ;  nor  would  most  men  cavil  at  the  metaphor  of 
stewardship  as  applied  to  the  relation  in  which  indi- 
viduals stand  to  the  gifts,  whether  of  mind,  or  body, 
or  fortune,  with  which  they  have  been  endowed  by 
Providence.  The  idea  is,  at  any  rate,  as  old  as 
Lucretius,  who  writes  of  our  earthly  pilgrimage  : 

"  Vitaque  mancipio  nuUi  datur,  omnibus  usu." 
"  The  fee  simple  of  life  is  given  to  none,  its  usufruct  to  all." 

(Book  III.,  971.) 

The  chief  novelty  and  the  chief  danger  of  the  theory, 
in  Wycliffe's  presentment  of  it,  was  its  extension  from 
the  spiritual  into  the  temporal  sphere.  To  hold  that 
all  men  are  equal  in  God's  sight  is  but  a  commonplace 
of  Christianity.  But  it  was  assuredly  no  commonplace, 
in  an  age  which  was  torn  asunder  with  rivalries  and 
jealousies,  to  maintain  that,  in  the  proprietary  world 
of  Society  and  politics,  no  man's  title  to  his  holding 


EASILY  TWISTED  INTO  SOCIALISM  327 

was  sound  save  through  the  invisible   operation  of  a 
mysterious  Grace.     Grace  is  not  anything  which   can 
be    apprehended  by   courts    of   law ;    and   a   doctrine 
which   may   be   harmless    enough    for    men   who    are 
under  the  restraint  of  a  sane  and  sober  leader,  is  apt 
to  become  highly  dangerous  in  turbulent  times  when 
communism  is  in  the  air.     At  such  times  what  respect 
was  ever  paid  to  a  philosopher's  safeguards  and  limita- 
tions?    If  the   worldliness   of  a   well-endowed   bishop 
so  forfeited  his  property  that  it  might  justly  be  taken 
from  him,  and  transferred,  let  us  say,  to  the  coffers  of 
his   rival   the   baron,   was   the    baron's   own   title   any 
better  against  a  hungry  and  down-trodden  peasantry? 
It  is  the  misfortune  of  all  idealism  that  its  cause 
may  be  made  to  suffer   through  an  untimely  and  in- 
convenient   literalism.      So    far    as   regards    temporal 
matters  Wycliffe  laboured  to  confine  his  theory  to  a 
realm   of  abstractions,   to   a   "city   of  God,"   an  ideal 
world   whose  pattern,  as  Plato   would   say,  was  "laid 
up  in  heaven."     As  thus  limited,  and  as  thus  under- 
stood, it  is  but  a  harmless  dream  of  perfection.     But 
it  must  be  remembered  that  his  poor  preachers  were 
daily  moving  among  an  uneducated  parochial  clergy, 
barely    able   to    keep   the   wolf    from    the    door,    and 
among    a    starving    and    insurgent    peasantry.       The 
agrarian   insurrection   of  the   fourteenth   century   had, 
as   we   know   well,  ample   causes   of  its   own  ;    but   it 
is  not  difficult  to  imagine   that   the  local  versions  of 
this  academical  and  abstract  theory,  that  all  property 
was  held  subject  to  "  grace,"  may  have  acted  here  and 
there  as  a  spark  to  powder,  and  as  fuel  to  flames. 


APPENDIX  C. 
Some  Bibles  with  Curious  Titles 

The  Bug  Bible. — Coverdale's  translation  of  Psalm  xci.,  5,  reads 
thus  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  nede  to  be  afrayed  for  eny  bugges  by 
night." 

[The  word  bug,  in  this  sense,  is  found  in  Purvey's  revision 
of  Wycliife,  Baruch  vi.,  69  ;  in  the  Matthews  Bible  of  1551  ; 
and  in  Shakspeare's  3  Henry  VI.,  v.,  "Warwicke  was  a 
bugge  that  feared  us  all."  Compare  bogy,  bugaboo,  bug- 
bear.] 

The  Treacle  Bible. — Jer.  viii.,  22  :  "  There  is  no  more  triacle 
at  Galaad."     (Coverdale,  1535  ;  Bishops',  1568). 

The  Breeches  Bible. — (The  Genevan.  See  note  to  page  211, 
supra.  The  London  Edition  of  the  Genevan  Bible,  dated  1775, 
has  "  aprons.") 

The  Place-makers  Bible. — The  Genevan  of  1562,  which  in 
Matt,  v.,  9,  reads  :  "  Blessed  are  the  place-makers." 

The  Goose  Bible. — The  Dort  Editions  of  the  Genevan.  The 
Dort  Press  had  a  goose  as  its  emblem. 

The  Leda  Bible. — (See  supra,  page  229),  Second  Edition  of 
Bishops'   Bible. 

The  He  and  She  Bibles. — (See  page  275). 

The  Vinegar  Bible. — (See  page  275). 

The  Murderers  Bible. — So  called  from  a  misprint  of 
"murderers"  for  "  murmurers  "  in  Jude,  verse  16. 

The  Standing  Fishes  Bible,  1806,  where  Ezek.  xlvii.,  10  (the 
fishers  shall  stand  beside  the  river)  runs, "  the  fishes  will  stand 
upon  it." 


APPENDIX  D. 
Bibliography 

"  History  of  Translations  of  the  Bible  and   New  Testament  into 

English.'"'  J.  Lewis ^  I73i>  I739j  1818. 

"Annals  of  the  English  Bible."  C.  Anderson^  1845. 

"History  of  the  English  Bible."  B.  T.  Westcoti,  1868. 

[This  most  valuable  work  is  now  out  of  print.] 
"A  History  of  the  Various  English  Translations."    /.  Eadie,  1876. 
"  Our  English  Bible  :  Its  Translations  and  Translators." 

/,  Sioughion,  1878. 
"Old  Bibles."  Dore,  1888. 

"  The   Bibles   of  England :    A  Plain  Account  for  Plain  People." 

Edgar,  1889. 
"English  Versions  of  the  Bible."  /.  /.  Mombert,  2nd  Ed.,  1890. 
"  History  of  the  English  Bible."  T.  H.  Paitison,  1894. 

"The  Old  English  Bible,  and  other  Essays."  Gasguei,  1897. 

"  Our  Bible  and  the  Ancient  MSS."  Kenyan,  3rd  Ed.,  1898. 

"  History  of  the  English  Bible."  Moulton. 

Catalogue  of  the  John  Rylands  Library  (in  Manchester)  G.  Lovett. 

[A  grand  piece  of  work,  but  not  easily  accessible.] 
"  How  we  got  our  Bible."  Paterson  Smith. 

Baxter's  "  Hexapla"  (with  a  historical  introduction). 
Article,  "  English  Bible."  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

Bede's  "  Works." 

"History    of   England    during    the    Early    and    Middle    Ages." 

Pearson. 

"  History  of  the  Middle  Ages."  Hallam. 

"  English   Writers "  :   an  attempt   towards  a  History  of  English 

Literature."  H.  Morley,  1887. 

329  . 


330  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

'  Biograph.  Brit.  Literaria  "  (Anglo-Saxon  period).  T.  Wright. 

'  History  of  Early  English  Literature."  Stopford  Brooke,  1892. 

*  Dictionary  of  National  Biography." 
'  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography." 

'  Scholastic  Philosophy  and  Christian  Theology."  Hampden. 

'  Historie  de  la  Philosophic  Scholastique."  Haureau,  1872-80. 

'  Lecture  on  Scholasticism."  W.  Shirley. 

'  History  of  England."  Lingard. 

'  Norman  Conquest."  Freeman. 

'  History  of  the  Papacy  during  the  Reformation."  Creighton. 

'  History  of  the  Popes."  Pastor. 

'  History  of  Latin  Christianity."  Milman. 

'  History  of  the  English  People,"  4  vols.  Green. 

'Illustrations  of  the  History  of  Medieval  Thought, 

R.  L.  Poole,  1894. 
'Medieval  Church  History."  Trench,  1886. 

'  Documents  Illustrative  of  English  Church  History." 

Gee  and  Hardy,  1896. 
'  Versions  from  the  Vulgate,"  by  T.  Wycliffe  and  his  followers,  4 
vols  4to.  Forshall  and  Madden,  iZ'^o. 

'  Fasciculi  Zizaniorum."  W.  Shirley,  1858. 

'  Chronicon  Anglian."  1874. 

'  Chronicon  of  H.  Knighton."     Books  1-4. 

[Book  5  is  by  another  hand.] 
'John  Wycliffe  and  his  English  Precursors."  Lechler. 

Translated  by  P.  Lorimer.     2  vols.  1878. 
'Wycliffe  and  Movements  for  Reform."  R.  L.  Poole,  1889. 

'  Wiclif's  Place  in  History."  M.  Burrows,  1882. 

'Ecclesiastical  Biographies."  Wordsworth,  1839. 

'  The  New  English  "  :  a  sketch  of  the  development  of  our  language. 

Oliphant. 
'  Age  of  Wycliffe."  Trevelyan. 

'The  English  Church  in  the  14th  and  15th  Centuries." 

Capes,  1898. 
'  The  Holy  Roman  Empire."  Bryce. 

'  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages."    H.  Rashdall,  1 895. 
'  Wyclif's  Select  English  Works.  T.  Arnold,  1869. 

'English    Works    of   Wyclif"    (with    a    valuable    introduction). 

F.  D.  Matthew,  1880. 
"  Lectures    on    the    Study    of   Medieval  and  Modern   History." 

Stubbs,  1886. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


331 


Sargeant,  1893. 

Parker  Society. 

Deniaus. 

Tulloch.,  1883. 

Parker  Society. 

Foxe. 

Hall. 

Fuller. 

Fuller. 

Seebohm. 

Le  Clerc. 

J.  A.  Symonds. 

Froude. 

Dixon. 

Hook. 

Parker  Society. 


"JohnWyclif." 

"  Tyndale's  Works." 

"  Tyndale's  Life." 

"  Luther  and  Other  Leaders  of  the  Reformation." 

"  Coverdale's  Works." 

"  Acts  and  Monuments." 

Wilkin's  "  Concilia." 

"  English  Chronicle." 

"  Church  History." 

"  English  Worthies." 

"  Oxford  Reformers." 

Erasmus'  "Works." 

"  The  Renaissance." 

"  History  of  England." 

"  History  of  the  Church  of  England." 

"  Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury." 

"  Bale's  Select  Works." 

"  Strype's  Works." 

"  The  Age  of  Elizabeth."  Creighion. 

"  Fulke's  Defence  of  English  Translations." 

"  History  of  England  during  the  1 7th  Century."    Ranke  {translated). 

"Henry  VII L"  Brewer. 

''  Letters  and  Papers  of  Henry  VIII." 

Brewer  and  Gairdner,  1862. 
Ellis'  "  Original  Letters."  1825-46. 

"  Life  of  Calvin."  Dyer. 

"  History  of  England."  Gardiner. 

"The  Era  of  the  Protestant  Revolution."  Seebok/n,  1874. 

"English  Thought  in  the  i8th  Century."  Leslie  Stephen. 

"  The  Authorised  Version."  Trench,  1858. 

"  On  a  Fresh  Revision  of  the  English  New  Testament." 

Light/oot,  1876. 
"  Considerations  on  Revision."  Ellicott. 

"  Introduction  to  the  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament." 

Scrivener,  1874. 


INDEX 


^LFRIC  (Abbot),  translations  by,  37 

AlDAN,  Apostle  of  England,  24,  119 

Aldhelm  (Abbot),  30 

Allen  (Cardinal),  the  Douai  Bible, 
231-2 

Anglo  -  Norman,  metrical  para- 
phrases in,  40  ;  rivalry  of,  with 
English  tongue,  91 

Apocrypha  excluded  from  Hebrew 
Canon,  318 

Aristotle,  influence  of  his  logic  in 
Middle  Ages,  53-4 

Arundel  (Archbishop),  his  Con- 
stitutions, 100 ;  persecution  of 
Lollards  by,  113 

AUGUSTINIAN  Mission,  the,  22 

Authorised  Version,  account  of, 
241-70 

Barnes,  Dr  Robert,  an  early 
Reformer  and  Martyr,  170 

Bede,  the  Venerable,  32-3 

Bentley,  Richard,  controversy  of, 
with  Collins,  281 

Beza  and  the  Genevan  Bible,  222  ; 
and  the  Authorised  V^ersion,  251 

Bible  (see  also  under  Coverdale, 
Tyndale,  etc.),  English  Versions 
of,  (a)  by  Wycliffe  and  Hereford 
(1382),  98;  (4)  by  John  Purvey  and 
others  (1388),  103  ;  (c)  by  Wm. 
Tyndale  (1525-15 34,  etc.),  140-50  ; 


(rf)  by  Miles  Coverdale  (1535),  170- 
9  ;  {e)  by  John  Rogers  (Matthew) 
(1537),  180-4;  (/)  by  Taverner 
(1539),  197  ;  {g)  by  Coverdale  and 
others  (The  Great  Bible,  1539), 
188-97;  iji)  by  Genevan  Com- 
mittee (1560),  211-25  ;  (;■)  by  The 
English  Bishops  (1568),  225-30; 
(y)  by  Roman  Catholic  translators 
(1582-1610),  230-5  ;  {k)  by  King 
James's  Committee  (1611),  249- 
64 ;  (/)  by  the  Revisers  of  1870 
(1881,  1885,  1895),  288-313; 
position  of,  in  Middle  Ages,  48-9, 
no  ;  improved  prospect  of,  under 
Cranmer,  165 ;  demand  for  an 
English  Version  of,  167-8  ;  enthu- 
siastic reception  of  Great  Bible, 
196  ;  curious  names  of  certain  mis- 
printed editions  of,  275  and 
Appendix  C 

BISCOP,  Benedict,  places  pictures  in 
English  churches,  31-2 

Bonner,  good  offices  of  Bishop, 
with  Great  Bible,  189-90;  at  old 
St  Paul's.  195 

Broughton,  Hugh,  a  learned 
Hebraist,  250 

C^DMON,  Bede's  tale  of,  25-9 
Calvin,     organising    genius     of, 
215-16 


INDEX 


333 


CALVINISTS.the.underHenryVIIL, 

207  ;     under   Edward    VI.,    209  ; 

under     Elizabeth,     223  ;     under 

James  I.,  243-4 

Chapters  and  Verses,  division  into, 

218  {footnote) 
Church,   the  Medieval,  saved  the 
classics,  15  ;  mission  of,  in  Eng- 
land, 16-17  ;  tutelary  function  of, 
18  ;    materialistic  side  of,  19,  42  ; 
grandeur  of,  97 
COCHL/EUS,  the  Roman  spy,  143 
CoLET,  University  lectures  of,  125-6 
CoMPLUTENSIAN  Polyglot,  the,  119 
COVERDALE,   Miles,   early   life   of, 
169-70  ;  friendship  of,  with  Crom- 
well,   170;    comparison    of,  with 
Tyndale,    173-7;    style  of,    178 
specimens  of  translation  by,  179 
as  editor  of  the  Great  Bible,  188 
flight  of,  to  the  Continent,  198 
connection     of,     with      Genevan 
Bible,  213 
Cranmer,  Thomas,  Primate,  165  ; 
and  the  Convocation  of  1534, 169  ; 
and  the  "Matthew"  Bible,  183; 
and  the  Great   Bible,   192  ;    and 
the  Prayer  Book,  196,  209  ;  and 
the  Continental  Calvinists,  207  ; 
directed  by  Henry  VIII.  to  alter 
the  Mass  into  a  Communion,  208  ; 
his    martyrdom   a    blow   to    the 
Marian  cause,  21 1 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  rise  of,  163  ; 
patron   of    Coverdale,    170 ;    his 
character,      174 ;     supports    the 
"Matthew"  Bible,  184  ;  initiates 
the  Great  Bible,  188  ;  illuminated 
copy  presented  to  him,  196 ;  our 
ecclesiastical  debt  to,  201  ;    and 
Henry  VIII.,  203-6 

Decalogue,  King  Alfred's  version 
of,  35 


Dominion,   Wycliffe's   theory   of, 

Appendix  B 
DouAi,    College   of,    231  ;     Bible, 

230-6 
Durham,  Book  of,  35 

Eadfrith,      Bishop,      and      the 

Lindisfarne  Gospels,  35 
Edward  VI.,  reign  of,  207 
Eighteenth   Century,   Specimens 

of    Biblical    Translation   during, 

283-4 
Elizabeth,         Genevan         Bible 

dedicated  to,  219  ;   harshness  of, 

against   Puritan   meetings,   221  ; 

ecclesiastical    policy    of,    224-6  ; 

Roman    Catholic    plots   against, 

233 

England  never  Romanised,  22 

English  language  and  Norman- 
French,  91-2 

Engraving,  the  Holbein,  in  the 
Great  Bible,  191-2,  201-2 

Erasmus,  character  of,  126;  his 
New  Testament,  127-8 ;  his 
"  Pocket  Dagger  "  translated  by 
Tyndale,  133 

FORSHALL  and  Madden,  edition  of 

Wycliffe  Bible  by,  98 
Fourteenth  Century,  ecclesiastics 

in  the,  94 

Gardiner,    Bishop,    opposed    to 

vernacular  translation,  169  ;  leads 

the  reaction,  197-8 
Gasquet,  Father,  and  the  Wycliffe 

Bible,  105  (note) 
Geneva,     city     of,     in     sixteenth 

century,  214-17 
German  philosophy  and  literature, 

influence  of,  in  England,  288 
Gospels,       early       Anglo-Saxon  : 

Lindisfarne,  35  ;  Rushworth,  37  ; 

Southern,  37 


334 


INDEX 


Gothic  Bible  of  Ulfilas,  lo 
Greek,     early      study    of,     Il8; 

Hellenistic        contrasted       with 

classic,  306 
Gregory    the     Great,    and    the 

advance  of  Rome,  14 

Hampton    Court,   Conference   of, 

241 
Hebrew,   early    study    of,    118; 

text  of  Old  Testament,  294-5 
Henry    VHI.,    quarrel    of,    with 

Pope,  161-3  ;  vacillating  attitude 

of,  towards  English  Bible,  186-7  ; 

Protestantism  of,  202-3 
Holbein,    his     engraving,    191-2, 

201-2 

Inquisition  and  the  Great  Bible, 
189-90 

Jerome  and  the  Vulgate,  236 
and  Appendix  A 

Latimer,  Hugh,  132  ;  King's 
Chaplain,  166;  William,  135 

Latin,  preservation  of,  by  the 
Church,  15  ;  old  Latin  versions 
of  Bible  35-6  and  Appendix  A 

Lindisfarne  Gospels,  35 

Lollard,  derivation  of  word,  112, 
7iiX\A  footnote 

LOLLARDY,  survival  of,  II3-15 

London,  Tunstall,  Bishop  of,  136, 

147-8,  197 
Luther,     Theses    of,     130;    and 

Henry  VHL,  137  ;  influence  of,  on 

Tyndale,   122  ;    a  predestinarian, 

123 
LUTHERANISM,  fear  of,  in  England, 

131,  146-7,  162 

Marsiglio  of  Padua,  Anti-Papalist 
Schoolman  and  Nominalist,  82-3 
Mary  Tudor,  reign  of,  210-11 


Massoretic,  or  traditional,  text  of 

Old  Testament,  294 
Matthew,    pseudonym   for    John 

Rogers,  180 
Middle  Ages,  central  principle  of 

belief  in,  13 
Mill,   Dr  John  (1707),  his  Greek 

Testament,  280 
Millenary  Petition,  the,  242 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  party  of,  131  ; 

his     controversy    with    Tyndale, 

155-6 
Munmouth,  Humphrey,  and  Tyn- 
dale, 138-40 

Nationality,  centrifugal  spirit  of, 

21  ;  seeks  expression  in  a  national 

language,  92 
NORTHUMBRIA,     the     intellectual 

focus  of  Bede's  England,  9,  12  ; 

breaks  with   Celtic   Christianity, 

31 
Notes,   marginal,    in    Bibles,    155, 
221,  226,  229 

OCKHAM,  William  of,  82-3 
Olivetan,  French  Bible  of,  182 
Ormulum,  the,  40 
Oxford,  University  of,  in  Middle 
Ages,  73 

Paganism  and  Christianity  in 
England,  23 

Papacy,  growth  of  medieval,  14  ; 
revolt  against  the,  67-9  ;  seculari- 
sation of  the,  68-9  ;  schism  in  the, 
86 

Parker,  Archbishop,  226 

Pentateuch,  Tyndale's,  148-9 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  204 

Polyglot,  (a)  Complutensian,  119  ; 
{h)  Walton's,  279-80 

Protectorate,  Protestantism  of 
the,  209 

Psalters,  early,  34-41 


INDEX 


335 


Received  Text,  the,  251 
Renaissance,  influence  of  the,  117 
Revised  Version,  the,  288-313 
Reynolds,  Dr,  proposes  to  James 

I.  a  new  Bible,  245 
Rheims  (Douai)   New  Testament, 

232 
Rogers  the  Martyr,  Bible  of,  180-3 
Rome,     spirit    of      ancient,      14 ; 

abandoned  by  Pope  for  Avignon, 

69 

Satan,  Miltonic  legend  of,  29 
Schism,  the  great  Papal,  86 
Scholasticism   and    the    School- 
men, 47-60 
Scientific  method,  rise  of,  278-80 
Septuagint,  the,  10,  295,  317 

Taverner,  English  Bible  by,  197 

Teutonic  character,  mental 
features  of,   29 

Textual  criticism,  the  aim  of, 
282,  296 

Textus  Receptus,  the,  251 

Theodore  (Archbishop),  organis- 
ing work  of,  16 

Tunstall,  Bishop  of  London,  136, 
147-8,  197 

Tvndale  {see  also  under  Bible), 
his  relation  to  Wycliffe,  1 1 2-1 5  ; 
indignation  of,  at  indifference  of 
the  Church,  116;  separated  from 
WyclifFe  by  the  Renaissance,  117  ; 
the  real  father  of  our  present 
English  Bible,  119;  character 
of  his  work,  120;  great  events 
comprised  in  his  life,  123;  at 
Oxford,  124  ;  at  Cambridge, 
126;  at  Little  Sodbury,  131  ;  in 
London,  136;  at  Hamburg,  140; 
at  Cologne,  142  ;  at  Worms,  144  ; 
New  Testament  of,  smuggled 
into    England,    144 ;     Pentateuch 


translated  by,  148  ;  Jonah 
translated  by,  148 ;  Martyrdom 
of,  at  Vilvorde,  151  ;  summary 
of  his  career,  152  ;  specimens  of 
his  translation,  154;  nobility  of 
his  character,  157-8 

Ulfilas,  Gothic  version  by  Bishop, 
10 

Various    readings :     meaning    of 

term,  276,  281 
Verses     and    Chapters :     division 

into,  218  {footnote') 
Versions,     the    three    chief,    296 

(^footnote) 
Versions  {see  under  Bible) 
Vulgate,   origin  of,  see  Appendix 

A  ;    medieval   reverence   for,    15 

and  129  ;  Tyndale's  use  of,  142  ; 

Coverdale's  use  of,  177  ;  nobility 

of,  236-7  ;  use  of,  by  revisers  of 

1611,  251 

Walton,  Bishop,  his  Polyglot, 
279-80 

Whitby,  Conference  of,  31 

Whittingham,  Wm.,  Genevan 
New  Testament  of,  218 

WoLSEY,  endeavour  of,  to  suppress 
Lutheran  books,  137 ;  letter  of 
Cochlaeus  the  spy  to,  143 ; 
prompts  Henry  VI I L  to  write 
against  Luther,  162  ;  failure  and 
fall  of,  163 

Wycliffe  {see  also  under  Bible), 
half  Schoolman  half  modem,  63  ; 
relation  of,  to  religion  and  to 
literature,  65  ;  eminent  position 
of,  at  Oxford,  66  ;  key  to  life  of, 
72  ;  explanation  of  his  influence, 
72-4  ;  the  three  stages  in  career 
of,  72 ;  early  life  of,  73 ;  his 
title    of    "Evangelical    Doctor," 


336 


INDEX 


75  ;  his  attitude  towards  religion, 
76,  85  ;  sketch  of,  as  the  Uni- 
versity Schoolman,  76 ;  Latin 
treatises  of,  on  "  Dominion,"  78 
and  Appendix  B ;  appointed 
King's  Chaplain  in  London,  79  ; 
Royal  Commissioner  at  Bruges, 
80 ;  original  designs  of,  why 
frustrated,  80-2 ;  effect  on,  of 
Great  Papal  Schism,  86  ;  in- 
stitution of  the  Papacy  attacked 
by,   87  ;    his   denial   of  tran sub- 


stantiation, 88  ;  Bible  translated 
by,  88 ;  expulsion  of,  from 
Oxford,  90 ;  death  of,  91  ; 
foundation  of  "  Poor  Preachers  " 
by,  94-5 

XlMENES,  Cardinal,  and  the  Com- 
plutensian  Polyglot,  ii<) {footttote) 

Zurich,  or    Swiss-German    Bible, 

177 
ZwiNGLI  the  Reformer,  202 


^  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


PR1>T1U>  BT  OLIVER  AND  BOYS,  KDIMBDROH 


The  Evolution  of 

the  English  Bible 

A  HISTORICAL    SKETCH   OF   THE   VERSIONS 

By  H.  W.  HOARE 


pteee  ^pmiona 

THE   TIMES: 

"  Mr  Hoare  .  .  .  has  read  well  and  widely,  .  .  .  We 
"  cordially  recommend  this  book  for  what  it  professes  to  be — an  amateur 
"  guide  to  amateur  students  and  lovers  of  '  the  greatest  of  English 
"  '  classics  and  the  most  venerable  of  national  heirlooms.' " 


MORNING   POST: 

"  Mr  Hoare  tells  the  story  of  its  literary  evolution  in  a  novel  as 
"  well  as  a  fascinating  fashion.  .  .  .  He  has  a  deft  literary  touch;  his 
"  book  is  brilliantly  written,  and  will  be  widely  read." 

DAILY  NEWS: 

"  The  volume,  furnished  as  it  is  with  portraits  and  facsimiles,  deserves 
"  to  find  a  place  in  every  English  historical  library  as  a  sound  and 
"  interesting  piece  of  work." 

GLASGOW   HERALD: 

"No  work  that  we  know  of  treats  the  subject  at  once  with  the 
"  same  fulness  of  detail  and  the  same  breadth  of  historical  outlook. 
"  To  ministers  in  search  of  suggestions  for  a  useful  course  of  Bible  class 
"  lessons  or  Sunday  evening  lectures,  it  ought  to  be  specially  valuable." 


CHURCH  TIMES: 

"  Carefully  and  sympathetically  written ;  its  compilation  has  evidently 
"  been  a  labour  of  love.  ...  Mr  Hoare's  very  full  accoimt  of 
"  Tyndale's  labours  is  admirably  written." 

ROCK: 

"A  really  engrossing  volume.  .  .  .  The  style  is  scholarly 
"  and  lucid,  and  the  matter  well  chosen  and  well  handled." 


SCOTSMAN  : 

"  Scarcely  a  mere  handbook.  ...  Mr  Hoare  has  given  us 
"  a  book  which,  while  overstepping  the  limits  modestly  claimed  for  it 
"  in  the  preface,  is  on  this  account  all  the  more  valuable  as  a  guide." 

NORTH   BRITISH   DAILY   MAIL: 

"An  interesting  book  on  what  is  always  an  interesting  subject." 


PRESS  OPINIONS— Centinued 


OUTLOOK  (New  York): 

"  Mr  Hoare's  treatment  of  the  subject  is  felicitous  from  a  literary 
"  as  well  as  a  philosophical  point  of  view.  .  .  .  The  best  book  on 
"  the  subject." 

OUTLOOK  (London)  : 

"An  admirable  summary;  should  prove  of  abiding  use  to  Bible 
"students." 


THE  RECORD: 

"A  timely  and  welcome  attempt  to  fill  up  what  is  undoubtedly  a 
"gap  in  our  Biblical  literature.  .  .  .  The  subject  matter  would, 
"  of  course,  by  itself  appeal  to  our  s)Tnpathy,  but  Mr  Hoare's  treatment 
"of  it  adds,  if  possible,  to  its  attractiveness.  His  literary  style  is 
"  bright  and  clear,  and  possesses  an  unusual  charm ;  he  writes  with 
"  scholarly  finish  and  taste  ;  he  has  an  intimate  knowledge  of  his  subject. 
"...    The  volume  is  imdoubtedly  a  remarkable  one." 

DAILY  CHRONICLE: 

"  The  book  is  delightful.  It  is  well  conceived  and  well  done,  and 
"  full  of  good  things." 

ST  JAMES'S  GAZETTE: 

"Mr  Hoare  has  carried  out  with  admirable  thoroughness  a  much- 
"  needed  undertaking." 

THE  CHRISTIAN  WORLD: 

"  A  most  fascinating  book." 


THE  LITERARY  WORLD: 

"We  anticipate  for    The  Evolution  of  the   English   Bible  a   hearty 
"  welcome  in  cultured  homes.     It  is  well  worth  reading." 


ATHENiEUM  : 

"  This  interesting  and  spirited  work." 

Dr  MuiR  tH  the  EMPIRE  REVIEW: 

"  The  sacred  story  is  told  in  an  able  and  convincing  manner 
"  fascinates  the  reader." 


CHURCH   QUARTERLY  REVIEW: 

"  A  model  of  what  such  a  popular  handbook  should  be." 

BOOKLOVERS'  LIBRARY  (Philadelphia): 

"  Presents  an  excellent  general  survey  of  the  development  of  the 
"  (English)  Bible." 

Mr  W.  R.  Harper  and  Professor  J.  F.  Genung  have  selected  this  book 
as  the  basis  of  a  course  of  reading,  arranged  by  the  Director,  for  1902. 


Yc  roo 1 42 


JUi;j8: 


